Olympic Heights: The Siege of Hades
by Sincerely Kimby
Summary: "I wasn't the hero and I'm not sure I ever will be—but with Percy around, the world seems to be in good hands." Book one of Leila Jackson series. What if the great hero Percy Jackson had a twin sister that he grew up with? Rewind and go back to find out exactly what it would have been like for everyone... Twin sister's POV of the Lightning Thief. Pre/Post TLT AU NOT A MARY SUE
1. One

**Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson or the main story line of this FANfiction.**

**Thank you, **_**TibbiToo**_** for Beta-ing! :)**

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><p><strong>One<strong>

All right, first things first: whatever Percy told you, drop it. This is my side of the story and he can go pout in a corner about it for all I care. I don't want to hear 'Well, Percy said this' and 'Percy said that' through _my _entire story. If you are going to be one of those people, close the book now.

Good. Now that that's all sorted, we can move on. I'm going to go ahead and correctly assume Percy-the-Pessimist already gave you the 'being-a-Half-blood-is-scary-and-ignore-it-until-you-can't' speech?

Yeah, I thought so.

Honestly, I really don't mind being a half-blood. Well, other than the fact you almost never go to the same school twice, never have that many normal friends, and you're countlessly being attacked by terrifying, blood-thirsty monsters that will stop at nothing to kill you… Yeah, except that—it's awesome.

It can be scary at times for sure, but I still don't think I would trade it away for a normal life… even if I had the chance.

My name is Leila Jackson and I am rare and dangerous half-blood. Although, probably not in the way you're thinking.

This story could began with any weird experience in my small depressing life, but things went down right strange last May right before my brother and I got expelled from Yancy Academy.

Yancy Academy was by far _not _a fun school to attend, but it did have some perks. Like all the field trips. None of them were extremely entertaining, but it gave us a chance to see the outside world once in a while.

Nothing terribly bad had happened this year on any of our field trips. Yet. Not that I was expecting anything, but stuff usually goes crazy by now.

See, field trips were all together a horrible experience. Not that they weren't interesting… we just usually get expelled early or something.

Exhibit A: In the fourth grade our class went on a behind-the-scenes tour of Marine World. Everything was going fine until we got to the shark pool and Percy just so happened to lean against the lever that made us have a surprise swim-with-the-sharks tour. Exhibit B: Fifth grade we were at the Saratoga battlefield. Since we were extremely bored, Percy and I might have sneaked to the very back of the tour group and accidently set off a Revolutionary War cannon. Of course, it missed our completely evil History teacher by a few feet and hit the school bus instead.

You get the picture.

Percy was totally determined to be 'good' this trip but really, what happened didn't surprise me in the least.

Before that day, I didn't question my reality at all. Everything was pretty normal. I was just one of twenty-eight 'special' kids that had been thrown onto a bus for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

The field trips we took this year already had been pretty boring so far but this time it wasn't our horrid Science or History teacher's leading the tour, it was Mr. Brunner. Mr. Brunner was pretty cool. Or as cool as you can get being a teacher. He taught Latin and he usually found a way to make it as interesting as possible. Least I didn't have to worry about making sure Percy stayed awake in his classes. I had hoped since Mr. Brunner would be leading the tour, it would be an all right trip.

Then I learned who the other teacher chaperone was.

Mrs. Dodds.

Okay, after our last teacher had some emotional breakdown, the school board must have sat down and decided we needed a harsher, stricter, math teacher because we got landed with Mrs. A. Dodds. (Don't ask me what the 'A' stands for. I have no clue.)

I swear from the first day, she just decided to hate me. In about the first four seconds of class, she had managed to give both me and Percy double detention. That was a new personal best for me.

But of course, if she chooses to hate someone, she's got to choose to love someone too, right? Right.

And the person she chose was Nancy Bobofit; possibly the most annoying, stuck-up, disgusting twelve year old on the planet. No lie. I have proof.

The whole way to the museum all she did was chuck pieces of her gross, ketchup and peanut butter sandwich at Percy and Grover. Lucky enough, I was in the seat behind them, and out of range.

Percy's roommate, Grover, was a red-headed crippled boy who tried to get along with just about everyone in the world; even Nancy. I didn't share or understand the appeal. I couldn't care less if Nancy _liked_ it when I punched her, as long as I got to punch her at all.

"I'm going to kill her," Percy mumbled.

One word that describes my brother more than any other… hmm, it'd got to be either 'oblivious' or 'loyal'. That boy hates it when someone he cares about is hurting and will do anything to make it stop, but he also has a lot of trouble seeing something that's straight up glaring at him in the face.

"Wow, Perce," I told him. "We're not even halfway there, and you're already ready to murder someone."

"Shut up," he snapped.

"It's okay," Grover tried to assure him. "I like peanut butter." Like _that_ was going to stop Percy. Yeah, good try, Grover.

I had a different plan on how to try and stop my brother from getting us both in trouble. I sighed and stretched my leg out into the aisle a little.

Percy got up. "That's it." He moved a little but promptly tripped over my leg and fell into the empty seat beside me.

"What was that—," he started.

"We're already on probation, Percy," I reminded him. "I don't want in school suspension too."

"No one said you had to do anything," he replied irritably.

"Yes," I nodded, "but do you really think I'm going to sit around while you beat up Nancy? No way would I pass up that chance." He sighed.

"Mr. Jackson," Mrs. Dodds snapped, "go back to your assigned seat." I smiled as he rolled his eyes and reclaimed his seat next to Grover.

Mr. Brunner led the tour through the museum from his motorized wheelchair, just riding along giving us one explanation after another description.

All the Greek and Roman war stuff was kind of cool, but it seemed a whole lot older than five thousand years. I mean, sure, five thousand years was great; it was lucky to survive that long, but it still seemed older somehow.

Eventually, my mind started to wander. According to the school's counselor, I'm supposed to stop, collect my thoughts, and rejoin reality when this begins to happen. Apparently, my ADHD messes with my head too much when I let my thoughts drift. When I was younger, I used to have hallucinations, but I haven't had those in a long time.

Besides, I'm old enough to know just to keep my mouth shut about it if I ever do.

I snapped back to the present when I heard Percy say: "Will you _shut up_?" For one wild second, I was afraid I had started talking out loud while I was zoned out, but when I saw him glaring at Nancy, I relaxed.

Then I realized that the comment must have come out louder than Percy meant it to, because Mr. Brunner had stopped talking about the Greek funeral art.

Mr. Brunner raised an eyebrow at Percy. "Mr. Jackson, did you have a comment?"

Percy glanced down. "No, sir."

"Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?" Mr. Brunner asked, pointing to a craving on a stele. I gazed at it and smiled. Percy knew this one, I was sure of it.

"That's Kronos eating his kids, right?" Percy recognized.

Mr. Brunner nodded. "Yes, and he _did_ this because…?"

"Well…" Percy paused for second before continuing. "Kronos was the king god, and—"

"Titian," I muttered to him from under my breath.

"Titian," Percy corrected then went on. "And… he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead. And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters—"

"Eeew!" exclaimed some girl next to me.

I decided to mess with her a bit, so I leaned over to her and gave her a very serious glare. "At least you weren't there."

She threw me a wild look. "Freak!"

I snickered at her panicked look and leaned away again.

"—and the gods won," Percy finished, summing up about ten thousand years of History in less then five minutes.

"Like we're going to use this in real life," Nancy Bobofit scoffed. "Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.'"

I crossed my arms in frustration and shifted my weight. Every second Nancy got more annoying—in school suspension looked better.

"And why, Mr. Jackson, to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question," Brunner continued, "does this matter in real life?"

I smirked as Grover muttered, "Busted."

"Shut up," Nancy mumbled in embarrassment.

"I don't know, sir," Percy answered, some of the snickering had been silenced.

Mr. Brunner sighed as if he expected better. "Well, half-credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach." I couldn't help but grimace at that piece of information—growing up in someone's stomach did not rank high on my list of Top 10 Best Childhoods in History.

"The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld," Mr. Brunner concluded. "On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?"

"Ready?" I asked Percy and Grover, as the rest of the class started outside.

"Sure," Percy agreed. "Let's-"

"Mr. Jackson," Mr. Brunner interrupted.

"Knew that was coming," Percy muttered. "You guys go ahead. I'll catch up soon." I shrugged and started to the door with Grover.

Our class was directed to sit on the first steps of the museum for lunch, where we could receive the lovely view of noonday rush hour traffic on Fifth Avenue.

"You know what," I started, as Grover and I sat down on the edge of the fountain, "I've lived in this city all my life and there is one thing I never understood."

"What's that?" Grover asked, chewing on a piece of his sandwich.

"Why we call the time of day when traffic is the slowest, 'rush hour'." I shrugged and opened my lunch. "It just doesn't make sense."

He laughed a little. "You're a funny girl, Leila."

"I know," I stated, leaning back to look at the sky. "Think it'll rain?"

Grover eyed the black clouds above us. "No telling."

"The weather's been so weird since Christmas," I commented. "Oh, well. Guess we can blame global warming or something."

Just then, Percy appeared. He huffed down next to me, looking all depressed. I sighed and offered him my sandwich. He smiled as thanks, and took it.

"Detention?" Grover asked.

"Nah," Percy swallowed. "Not from Brunner. I just wish he'd lay off me sometimes. I mean—I'm not a genius."

"You can say that again," I teased. Percy hit me in the arm and tried to glare, but I could see he was fighting a smile, so it was okay.

Percy glanced at Grover.

When Grover finally met our gaze I thought he was going to give us some important speech that would completely change life as we know it… but instead he randomly asked, "Can I have your apple?"

I shook my head and tossed him the apple. "Boys," I scoffed, "they can only keep their minds off food for short periods of time."

Percy nodded wisely and stroked his invisible beard. "No comment," he decided with a final nod.

As Grover ate his apple, I turned around to stare at the fountain. "Think I'd get in trouble if I put my feet in the fountain?" I asked, letting my feet sway a few inches above the water's surface.

Percy shrugged. "Don't know. You probably wouldn't get caught but people would wonder way the ends of your pants were all wet."

"I'll just tell them I fell in the toilet, while I was wrestling a bear," I stated, sticking my feet in the water.

"You're just asking for more of that therapy, aren't you?" Percy said in a mock-serious tone.

I laughed. "Oh, definitely! I just can't get enough of sitting around talking about my feelings for hours at a time."

"Sounds like something normal girls would do at sleepovers," he responded.

"Yes," I agreed, "but I'm not really your cookie-cutter prep school girl, am I?"

"Touché," he mused, still staring at passing traffic.

"What are you thinking?" I asked quietly.

He looked away from Fifth Avenue for a second to look at me. "I'll give you one guess," he told me.

"Forget it," I muttered. But even as I took my feet out of the fountain and started kicking extra water from my feet, I felt my mind starting to wander again. This time was much different than simply spacing out in a classroom.

My curiosity was starting to get the best of me, but I absolutely hated doing this. It was creepy, and it made me feel so much more then the freak I already was.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Instantly, thoughts that were not mine filled my mind. I literally _knew _Percy was thinking of the little upper eastside apartment and the only person that actually made that ratty place home.

"Mom." I didn't have to guess about my answer at all. I knew for a fact Percy was now considering hopping into the closest cab to head home. I shuddered and shook my head, trying to clear my mind of anything other than my own thoughts.

"Don't," I warned him.

"What?" He said. "You don't want see her?"

"Of course I want to see her," I replied. "But what I don't want to see is the look she gives us when she realizes we took off. Again."

"I know," Percy sighed. "She'd send us back saying something really positive about everything—even if this is our sixth school in six years."

"So we have some _really_ bad luck," I remarked. "Is that our fault?"

"I guess not," he reasoned.

"Percy," I sighed, shaking my head. "That was a rhetorical question. You weren't really supposed to answer me."

"Oh," he stated. I laughed a little and rubbed my forehead. "I hate doing that," I complained, trying to push the feel of my brother's thoughts out of my head.

"Not any easier on my end," Percy commented. "It feels like my head is being invaded by aliens or something…"

"Aliens? Really, Percy?"

"Yeah, aren't aliens supposed to like, come to Earth and try to slowly take over human minds…" He trailed off when he saw the blank expression on my face. "Never mind," he huffed.

I laughed, but unfortunately, that happiness was short lived because at that moment Nancy Bobofit decided it was time to make an appearance.

"Mrs. Dodds wants to see you," she told me with a sneer.

I raised my eyebrow at the ugly red-head. "And why would she need to see me?"

She ignored my question and glanced at my wet sneakers. "Nice shoes," she mocked.

That was all the information I needed. It was now clear Mrs. Dodds had seen me in the fountain and I was going to be punished. Typical.

I exhaled sharply and stood up.

I hopped up the steps toward Mrs. Dodds. She was already waiting there for me. I could tell because her eyes were narrowed as if considering how many different ways of school-induced-torture she could pass me off with this time around. I tried to kick some water out of sneakers to make them look drier then they felt, but it was no use. I figured I'd be in detention for a week anyway. Mrs. Dodds was always sniffing out ways to give me detention.

Halfway up the steps, I heard three words that would change my life forever. "Percy pushed me!" Nancy cried.

I whirled around in utter shock to see Nancy sitting butt-first in the fountain and Percy standing up with his arms thrown out as if he had indeed, just pushed her into the water.

Some of the students had obviously gathered around-sensing the fight- because now they were pointing at Percy, muttering: "Did you see―"

"―the water―"

"―like it grabbed her―"

"What did you do?" I hissed at him since Grover was currently gaping at Percy like a fish, completely in shock.

Percy shook his head. "I don't remember-"

All of sudden, I noticed Mrs. Dodds wasn't at the top of the steps anymore, she was standing behind us glowering down our necks.

I turned and awkwardly crossed my arms under her glare.

"Now, honey―" she started once Nancy had climbed out of the fountain.

"I know. A month erasing workbooks," Percy finished with a scowl.

Somehow, I didn't think he was going to get off so easily.

"Come with me," Mrs. Dodds stated.

"I pushed her," I said before the full reality of the situation had caught up with me.

Mrs. Dodds threw me a sharp look.

It wasn't uncommon for my brother and I to split punishments, but I realized a bit too late that I might have the wet shoes, but I had already been too far away from the fountain to have pushed Nancy.

"We will deal with your lying later," she told me in a hard voice.

I shot Grover a look, and lucky enough—he caught on. "Wait! It was me," he jumped up from his place on the steps. "I pushed her."

Of course, that didn't work either. "I don't think so, Mr. Underwood," Mrs. Dodds stated in a dangerously low voice.

"But―"

"You―will―stay―here," she insisted.

"It's okay," Percy told us. "Thanks for trying."

Something was off. I could feel anticipation rolling off Mrs. Dodds in waves, like she had been waiting for all of this. "Percy—"

"Honey," Mrs. Dodds snarled, cutting me off. "Now."

With one final glare toward the offending redhead, Percy turned and followed Mrs. Dodds back up the steps toward the museum. I was rooted in place, as I watched them disappear from view.

"Something wrong," I stated as soon as the museum door had closed.

"Wha-"

"Grover, something's wrong," I repeated. At this point, I knew I was using a slightly manic tone, but I couldn't help it. All of my muscles were still tensed as if my body had been expecting a fight.

Grover fidgeted, gave me a long worried look than threw a glance toward the museum. "Maybe I should go ask Mr. Brunner—"

I couldn't take it anymore. I bolted up and dashed to the Latin teacher "Sir," I said as soon as I was in front of him, "Mrs. Dodds took Percy into the museum."

He immediately set aside his book and looked at me critically. "What are you talking about?"

I quickly explained the situation to Mr. Brunner as Grover appeared next to me.

"Leila—," he started slowly when I was done.

I knew that tone all too well. That was the tone that the school's counselors use when they're about to insist that everything is all in my head—that this was all just some hallucination brought on by something I saw in the museum. Yet, somehow hearing Mr. Brunner use it on me, made me snap.

"Call it a freaking twin thing," I stated, probably confirming whatever crazy things some of teachers said about me, "but I know Percy is in _real_ trouble."

"I'm sure everything is fine." But as he said this, Mr. Brunner gripped his pen a little tighter into his fist so I could tell he was lying. "You two go sit down, I'll see where Percy's gotten off too."

Once Mr. Brunner had also disappeared, I rushed toward the entrance after him.

"Leila—," Grover yelped, taking off after me. "What are you doing?"

"Finding Percy," I said, pulling the building door open.

"Mr. Brunner told us to wait here," he tried.

"Well, there you go," I yanked the door out of his grip. "I never do what I'm told." I darted into the museum before Grover could try and stop me again.

"We don't even know where he is," Grover insisted, following in behind me. "Let's just go back outside and—"

"And what?" I asked. "_Wait_?" I had never been a patient person, but the thought of actually sitting around _waiting_ for this feeling to leave would literally make me go crazy. I rolled my eyes and continued through the museum.

Grover gulped and trailed next to me quietly. His eyes moved quickly from one place to another, never zooming in on one certain object, like he expected Mrs. Dodds to jump out of the shadows, eyes ablaze at any given moment.

"How—how do you even know we're going the right way?" he stuttered. "We are just going to end up lost in this place!"

A loud BANG echoed through the abandoned hallway. "How about we start there?" I stated.

When I finally rounded the last corner into the empty Greek and Roman galleries, I froze. My brain was just refusing to process what I was seeing.

At the end of the hall, Percy was holding a bronze sword up against possibly the most terrorizing, most confusing thing I had ever seen in my life. The creature had glowing eyes, bat-shaped wings, fangs, talons, and was currently in the middle of attacking Percy.

_Okay,_ I thought. _I'm officially nuts._

"How do you run so fast?" Grover asked while gasping in deep breaths of air but froze when he saw the vision in front of us.

"Die, honey!" The creature insisted to Percy as she lunged toward him again. Grover whimpered and grabbed my arm, about to pull me away.

I shrugged off Grover, getting ready to throw the nearest Greek vase when all of a sudden—Percy swung the sword. The blade rushed straight through the creature without resistance, and disappeared.

After a second of hesitation, I stepped away from the corner and ran into the room. "Percy, what on Earth was—"

"Tell me I'm not crazy," he blurted before I could finish.

I gave him a hard look. "We've been over this. You're not the crazy one—I am."

"Not funny," he managed, looking pretty nuts. "You saw that—that thing, right?"

I glanced at his hand and almost had a heart attack. In his hand, there wasn't any sword. Only a normal ball point ball.

"I don't know what I saw," I admitted.

"But it wasn't human?" Percy added with slight glisten of hope.

"It was definitely _not_ human," I confirmed.

"Way to ditch us," I told Grover who was back to sitting outside on the steps as if nothing had happened.

He twitched nervously, and wouldn't meet my eyes. "You and Percy shouldn't wander off," he told me. "You're going to get in trouble with Mrs. Kerr."

"Who?" I asked him.

"Mrs. Kerr," he repeated, motioning towards a blonde woman standing a few feet away.

I gave him a long look as Percy sat down next to us. "Where's Mrs. Dodds?" he asked Grover.

He shifted uncomfortably. "Who?"

"Not funny, man," my brother told him, noticing his lie. "This is serious."

Grover stiffly shrugged and opened a museum map, ignoring us.

Percy and I shared a nervous look, than ever-so-slowly we stood up and backed away.

"Be right back," Percy muttered, walking over towards Mr. Brunner.

I nodded and wiped some rain off my face. I moved under the museum's overhang just now realizing I had been right about the weather—it was raining.

I felt oddly numb, as if my mind was still too busy doing summersaults to process anything else. I had experienced some pretty crazy things in my twelve years, but this ranked top spot.

"That's it," Percy stated in the same monotone I was feeling. "We're crazy."

I took a deep breath, bracing myself for the worst. "What did Mr. Brunner say?"

"He told me—," Percy stopped for a second, then continued. "He told Mrs. Dodds didn't exist."

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><p><strong>(AN: Okay, first chapter down! Woo! Ha-ha, okay so tell me your thoguhts! I know this is way different from my first version, but I love it so much! All right, so I have to say special thanks to **_**Sammi143, Chanaenae11, Paigemeable, Purecaitlyn, **_**and my new Beta **_**TibbiToo**_**!)**

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><p><strong>Now, I like to ask random questions at the end of each chapter. The rule is if you guys answer, so will I. :) All right, here is the question:<br>**_How many museums do you think you've been to_?


	2. Two

**Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson or the main story line of this FANfiction.**

**Thank you, **_**TibbiToo**_** for Beta-ing! :)**

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><p><strong>Two<strong>

The weeks following that disastrous trip to the museum were just plain awful.

Apparently, just because Percy and I had been hallucinating about having a different math teacher, that didn't mean the current one didn't know about us. Percy still got detention for pushing Nancy into the fountain and I still got reprimanded for sticking my feet in the fountain water.

It was kind of strange getting detention from a teacher who wasn't even there, but we didn't bring that up right away.

We tried everything we could to get people to admit Mrs. Dodds used to work at Yancy. I even went as far as to check some office records, but there was nothing there. Mrs. Dodds wasn't mentioned once.

If it weren't for the creepy dreams that made me afraid to sleep at night, mixed in with the fact that Grover was so obviously lying, I probably would've come to believe that Mrs. Dodds had never existed.

Of course, the problem was we were right and the entire rest of the campus didn't seem to want to say anything about it, so Percy and I pretty much stopped caring about our grades or what these people thought.

"A twenty-four!" Mr. Nicoll ranted to Percy in English class one day. "I've never had to give a grade lower than a fifty to any student!" He hesitated and glanced at me. "Except to you, but even so, you managed to get at least a forty-six! I suppose that is close enough."

"But you—," he rounded back to my brother, "we give students study times, we give review sheets—we practically hand the answers to you! Why are you, Percy Jackson, too lazy to study for my tests?"

"Oh, be quiet you old sot!" Percy snapped, banging his fist down on his desk. A few of the kids outright laughed while others tried their best to cover it, but either way, Mr. Nicoll knew he had been insulted.

Within the week, we were expelled. The board decided to let us finish out the year, but after that, we were not allowed to ever come back.

"The food sucked here anyways!" I told the principle when he informed us of our expulsion. I received a week's worth of detention for that comment, but the expression on his face kind of made up for it.

When finals got closer, everyone started studying while I sat back and watched people freak out about every comment. Seriously, stressed people will flip about the most random things sometimes.

The night before the exams started, I went over to Percy's dorm to see what he was doing.

"Whoa!" I yelled, ducking as I almost got decapitated by a flying book. "Watch it! Trying to walk over here!"

"Sorry," Percy apologized from his bed. "Didn't know you had opened the door."

I picked up Percy's _Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology _and tossed it back to him. "What were you doing?"

"Trying to study," he grumbled, sitting up. His hair was sticking up in funny directions as it he had been pulling at it. He probably had been.

"I'm going to guess it wasn't going well," I commented, falling onto the bed next to him.

He shook his head and began pacing around the room. "I can't do it! It's like my head refuses to learn. There is no way I'm going to remember the difference between Chiron and Charon, or Polydictes and Polydeuces. And conjugating Latin verbs? Forget it. All I want to do is get a semi-decent grade on my Latin finial!"

"Trying to impress Mr. Brunner?" I joked.

"Not exactly," he said, giving me a sideways-glance. "It's just… he worked so hard with us this year. You could at least _try_ to get a good grade."

"I do," I replied, "but like you said, he's worked all year with us. He knows where are limits are. I just happen to give in to ADHD a lot faster than you."

"You did try to study," Percy guessed. He set his book down on the bed and picked up a rubber band as a replacement.

"Yeah, I did," I admitted. "It wasn't going too horribly, but then I got hungry. So I got pudding from downstairs than came here." I sighed. "You really want to pass?"

"We owe to Mr. Brunner," Percy decided, stretching the rubber band.

"Fine," I exhaled, then grabbed the mythology book and stood up. "We're going to go ask Mr. Brunner for help."

My brother eyed me carefully. "I've never asked a teacher for help."

I shrugged. "Neither have I. Let's just go. Teachers are supposed to help with this sort of thing anyway, aren't they?"

"I guess," Percy responded. "Maybe I can at least apologize for the big fat F I'm about to score on his exam."

"Very optimistic," I told him.

He laughed and shot the rubber band at me. I stepped out of the line of fire, while he got up.

The first floor was almost completely dark. A few lights were still on in a couple offices, but most of them had been turned off hours ago. Luckily, there was still light streaming out from underneath Mr. Brunner's classroom door.

I walked up and took the handle, about to yank the door open when Percy stopped me.

"…worried about them, sir," a familiar voice said. I shot a look at Percy and he mouthed, _Grover,_ pretty much confirming my suspicions.

Percy tugged on my elbow, motioning that we should go, but I held up my hand to stop him. Grover was Percy's friend so I understood my brother wanting to give him some personal space, but Grover hadn't been talking about himself in that statement. He had been talking to a teacher about someone else. More specially, some_one's_, since he did say "them".

Percy must have realized this, because he crept closer with me.

"... alone this summer," Grover continued. "I mean, a Kindly One in the _school_! Now that we know for sure, and _they _know too—"

Mr. Brunner cut him off. "We would only make matters worse by rushing things. Percy and Leila need to mature more."

My fist automatically curled in when our names were mentioned. Percy's eyes widened as he leaned in to listen more.

"But they may not have time. The summer solstice dead line—"

"Will have to be resolved without either of them, Grover," Mr. Brunner interrupted gently. "Let them enjoy ignorance while they still can."

"Sir, they _saw _her..." Grover insisted.

"Imagination," Mr. Brunner stated patiently. "The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince them of that."

"Sir, I..." Grover took in an audible deep breath. "I can't fail in my duties again. You know what that would mean."

"You haven't failed, Grover. I should have seen her for what she was," he said. "Now let's just worry about keeping the Jacksons alive until next fall—,"

_THUD._

I whirled around to see Percy frozen, staring in horror at the mythology book on the floor. It hadn't escaped my notice that the classroom had fell silent, so I grabbed the book and Percy's arm and soundlessly started running down the hall.

I was perfectly content to sprint all the way back to the dorms, but Percy finally came to his senses and pulled me into one empty classrooms. We crouched against the back of the door and waited.

After only a couple seconds of silence, a slow sound started throughout the hallway. It almost sounded like someone was walking carefully down the hall in high-heels. The clop-clop-clop noise sounded around the hall, and then stopped suddenly right outside the door. I held my breath while my heart beat sounded loudly in my ears, making it hard to concentrate.

Eventually, I heard Mr. Brunner's voice in the hall. "Nothing. My nerves haven't been right since the winter solstice."

"Mine neither. But I could have sworn ..." Grover trailed off while a shudder ran up my spine at the thought of actually being caught spying.

Finally, our Latin teacher continued. "Go back to the dorm," he instructed Grover. "You've got a long day of exams tomorrow."

Grover groaned."Don't remind me."

The light died and everything went silent. I moved to stand up but Percy caught my arm. I threw him a questioning look and he mouthed: _Could still be around. Wait._

Slumping back against the door, I nodded, telling him I understood. I slowly counted to a hundred in my head before Percy and I got up and started back toward dorms.

The two of us didn't talk much on the way. There wasn't much to say. I wasn't very sure about what we had heard downstairs, but it gave me a raw sort of fear in the pit of my stomach. Somehow, I knew whatever deadline Grover and Mr. Brunner had been talking about was very real, and very, very dangerous.

The next day, I found my mind skipping and wandering more than usual. Maybe it was because I heard people I thought I could trust, talking about Percy and me behind our backs, or maybe it was because I had been sitting in the same room for the past three hours trying to take a Latin exam.

Percy sighed in relief, as he stood and handed in his paper. I grimaced and realized I hadn't even finished _half _my paper. _Maybe me daydreaming is bad,_ I thought, shaking my head.

"Percy," Mr. Brunner called my brother back. My eyes snapped up to see Percy walk back in the classroom, looking a bit guarded.

"Percy," Mr. Brunner repeated. "Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's ... it's for the best."

Percy shifted uncomfortably. "Okay, sir," he muttered quietly.

"I mean... This isn't the right place for you. It was only a matter of time." A flash of anger hit me. What was _that_ supposed to mean? This guy had worked all year with us and suddenly, he was telling us we weren't _ever_ good enough to be here?

"Right," Percy responded in a hard voice.

"No, no," Mr. Brunner raised his hands in a peace-making gesture. "Oh, confound it all. What I'm trying to say... you're not normal, Percy. That's nothing to be—"

"Thanks. Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me," Percy interrupted him then turned to leave. I was out of my chair, test abandoned, before Percy even disappeared out the door. I didn't know if the things Mr. Brunner told Percy included me or not. If they did, I was offended. If they didn't, Mr. Brunner had practically told my brother he was too stupid to be at this school in front of the class, which possibly might have offended me even more.

Finally, the year was over.

My last day at Yancy Academy was spent packing. After successfully cramming way too many things into up my old, Adidas duffel, I did one last sweep of the room to see if I forgot anything. I was really hoping I hadn't, because I was pretty sure I couldn't fit anything else in my bag without it exploding (which would have been pretty cool, but unfortunately, ineffective).

Once I was sure I had everything I needed stuffed away, I sat on top of my bag and got ready to say goodbye to school number six.

This year really hadn't been as bad as others. One of the cool things about this year was that I got my own room. See, my roommate's dad was in the military and he got transferred at the last second and she had to drop out. Luckily, no one ever bothered to assign me another roommate. The freedom was nice, but the quiet really got to me sometimes, which was why I had spent a lot of my time studying in Percy's dorm.

A familiar buzzing of the hallway intercom let me know that this was it. I was really leaving. "All students riding any Greyhound bus transportation please report to the main office immediately."

One knock sounded firmly across the room, but I didn't bother telling him to come in. Percy would come in whether I said to or not. "Ready?" my brother asked poking his head into my room.

"I think so," I said, taking a deep breath.

"Where's your stuff?" I asked, noticing his lack of bags.

"Some of the teachers came around and helped some of kids get there things to the buses so I just left with them," he replied, grabbing the edge of my duffel.

I nodded and threw my backpack over my shoulder. "Let's go."

We each grabbed an end of my bag and headed out.

"So," I started as we made our way down the hall, "did you cry when you said goodbye to Grover?"

"Didn't have to," Percy said. "He's taking the same bus as we are."

"Into the city?"

"Yeah," he confirmed, "but it's weird. I've mentioned living in New York City before, but…"

"He hasn't," I finished.

"No, he hasn't," he said, shaking his head. "He never said anything about it until this morning."

"Think it has something to do with—," I paused, trying to find words. "Whatever we heard him and Mr. Brunner talking about?"

"I've been thinking that," he admitted, "but why would what we do this summer have anything to do with the 'summer solstice' or 'Kindly Ones'?"

"I've never ever heard of the 'Kindly Ones'," I stated, "but it sounds like something from Pokémon."

We both laughed, quickly sweeping any tense thoughts out of our minds.

"Why does it always seem like you leave with more stuff than you come with?" Percy grumbled, changing the subject.

"Why do you always complain about it more and more each year?" I countered with a scowl.

"Whatever."

I laughed a little under my breath while I watch him pulling at the edge of my suitcase.

"You could help instead of just standing there," he told me.

"I _could_ do a lot of things," I shot back, taking one of the handles of my duffel with a smirk.

The major Déjà Vu set in when the three of us were riding back into the city.

Percy and I were sitting in a row by ourselves while Grover a few seats ahead of us, across the aisle. Every few seconds I would catch him sneaking worried glances at us. Eventually, I muttered, "I can only take so much more of this."

"What?" Percy asked, while I buried my face into my backpack.

"You don't see Grover staring at us like were about to fly out the bus windows?" I remarked, shaking my head.

"We could still make a jump for it, if you want," he joked. "I'm pretty sure we could both fit through the windows if we _really_ tried."

I laughed a little. "Percy Jackson, you will be the death of me one day."

My brother grinned, and stood up. "Be right back," he told me. I watched him crossover to Grover's seat and start talking to him. From here, Grover looked more freaked out than Percy, but I couldn't be sure since my brother's back was to me.

A few minutes later, Percy shook his head and moved back onto his seat next to mine. "What did you do?" I demanded, eyeing Grover's terrified expression.

"I sat down and asked him if he was looking for Kindly Ones," he stated.

I rolled my eyes. "Way to give him a heart attack."

"He also gave me this," Percy said, handing me a small, thick-papered, business card.

"What the heck is this supposed to say?" I said, trying to read the small cursive letters.

"His name, something about keeping and a hill, then a phone number at the bottom."

"A hill?"

"Yeah, Half-something Hill."

"And why is this important?" I asked, turning it over in my hands.

"I don't know," he shrugged. "He just told it was his summer address, and if we needed him, we should… I don't know. Call him or something, I guess."

"Huh," I stated, tossing the card in my backpack.

"I can't believe this," he continued. "All year long, I've gotten in fights, keeping bullies away from him. I've lost sleep worrying that he'd get beaten up next year without me! And here he is acting like he's the one who defended _me?_"

"What's he protecting us from?"

"I asked him that."

"And?" I pressed, waiting for him to explain.

Percy shook his head. "He didn't answer me. He just said I should go back to my seat."

"All right, things are officially getting weird," I sighed, leaning against the seat. "I mean, we heard Mr. Brunner and Grover talking about the trouble we might have this summer weeks ago…"

"What kind of trouble do they think we'll have this summer?"

All of a sudden, the bus sputtered and lost almost all of its speed. A sharp groaning sound spilled out of the engine.

"We broke down?" Percy said in disbelief.

The bus started to drift over to the side of the highway and for a second, I was worried we wouldn't get that far. Slowly but surely we made our way to the shoulder of the road.

"I can't believe this," I muttered, grabbing my bag as the driver announced we would all have to carefully exit the bus. As we passed Grover on our way off the Greyhound, he jumped up and walked off the bus with us.

"I'm going to go see what's happening up there," I told the boys, pointing to where the driver was almost completely hidden in the engine compartment.

Grover looked slightly panicked by that idea but Percy cut him off by the time he opened his mouth to say something. "All right," Percy said. "We'll be here."

I nodded and headed toward the crowd, but couldn't get very far because of the crowd of people swamped around the back of the bus. Everyone seemed to be trying to see what was going on at once.

Finally out of total frustration, I called out, "Does anyone know how long this is going to take?"

"Hopefully not very long," a woman answered, smiling in a non-threatening way. "The driver said he doesn't think the problem is that big."

I returned the smile. "Thanks."

"If only this guy could figure out what he doing," a boy to her left muttered.

"Nicholas," the woman scolded in motherly way, "just be patient. We'll leave when we leave."

"Yeah, whatever," he muttered to woman before turning my way. He was maybe a little older than me and looked about as annoyed by this whole situation as I felt. "Nick," he introduced with a smile.

"Leila," I said, shaking his outstretched hand.

"Where you from?"

"I'm heading home from school actually," I told him. "I live in the city."

"That's cool," Nick responded. "I wish I lived there all the time. My parents are divorced, and my mom lives in the city so I get to spend my time there when I visit her."

"Sweet," I said. "My mom has an apartment in the city with my stepdad so I go home every summer and stay with them."

"Why do you go to boarding schools if you could live in the city all year?" Nick asked. "I would never leave New York if I didn't have too."

I wasn't sure how to answer his question. In all honesty, I would live in the city with my mom 365 days a year if I could. Every year I tried to convince my mom to let me go to the local schools around the city, but every year, my mom found another boarding school that was willing to take us. "I don't get along with my stepdad," I told Nick, completely changing my train of thought.

He nodded. "My dad and I kind of clash, too."

I smiled at his understanding, but crossed my arms and turned away. I had never given away so much of my life to a stranger, and it was making me a bit uncomfortable. It's not like I had anything against meeting people, but someone like Nick was never going to understand my stepdad and I did more than 'clash'. We hated each other. And that is not any sort of exaggeration.

"Darn right!" shouted the driver, shutting the engine compartment. "Everybody back on board!"

I smiled and waved to Nick and his mom, then headed back to Percy and Grover. The two of them were still standing where I left them, but they looked pretty freaked out now.

Grover pounced as soon as I was close enough. "Are you okay?" he asked looking at me like he was afraid I would randomly spontaneously combust.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I said, confused. "Come on, let's get back on the bus."

It was painfully clear there was something bothering them, since they were both shaking as we re-boarded, but neither of them were volunteering to say anything either. On the bus, Grover had switched seats with someone and was now sitting straight across from us, only adding to the list of his suspicious actions.

"All right, what aren't you two telling me?" I hissed at them.

Percy swayed a little and leaned against me. "I don't feel so good," he mumbled.

"This is not happening," Grover said to himself, shaking his head. "I don't want this to be like the last time."

"What are you talking about?" I asked him. "What last time?"

"Always sixth grade," he continued to mutter under his breath. "They never get past sixth."

"'They' who?" My mind was whirling. Grover was acting like someone was about to die, for goodness sake!

"Grover, what are you talking about?" Percy repeated in a hard voice.

Of course, he ignored our questions. "Let me walk you home from the bus station," he pleaded. "Promise me."

I frowned, looking at the boys. "Is this like a superstition or something?"

My brother shrugged a little and faced Grover again. "Grover—that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody's going to die?"

"What yarn?" I asked feeling pretty lost. "What the heck are you guys talking about?"

Grover gave Percy and me a sad look, then turned to look out the window. I glanced at Percy, hoping he would explain, but he just shook his head, obviously too tired for anything.

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><p><strong>(AN: All right, so I know this**** update took way longer than it should (you can thank ACPJ9 for making me realize it's been a freaking month since I updated), but what'd you think? Still like it? Oh and for anyone waiting for me to update Insiders Know All, I have hit a wall with that story! MAJOR writer's block; it might be a little bit before I finally figure out where I'm going with that, but no worries, I am still working on it. :] )**

**And a special thanks to...  
><strong>**_Rae-Prite, iluvcoffee123, AQUA-TOT, CloudlyLight SilverNights, paigemeable, Jj, Annabeth Lucy Granger, Lady Oblivious, puretorcherismynamecaitlyn, Schwan, Silents-in-the-Library, Percy's favorite sister, Guest, AgentCherry-Garcia212, R.E.D. The Oracle, _and_ K  
><em>****...for reviewing! You know I love you all! ;)**

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><p><strong>My answer to last chapter's question:<br>**I've been to anywhere between 12-16 museums.  
>Here's a few: Creation Museum in Tennessee, Natural Science Museum, Philadelphia Art Museum, Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, and the Museum of Natural History in New York City. My school takes lots of field trips and I love museums, so it's perfect!<p>

**This chapter's question:  
><strong>_How often do you ride on a bus?_


	3. Three

**Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson or the main story line of this FANfiction.**

**Thank you, **_**TibbiToo**_** for Beta-ing! :)**

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><p><strong>Three<strong>

Percy broke his promise.

Let me explain: as soon we were off that bus and back in New York City, the two of us jumped in the first open cab we saw, and got out of there before Grover was even back from the bathroom.

Not nice, but untimely necessary in my opinion. (After all, if Grover really expected to come home with us he could have at least stopped with the panic-filled looks and muttering under his breath about how kids are always dying in the sixth grade.)

But at last, we were safely hidden in a New York City cab, with the skyline towering over us. I smiled and leaned back into the leather seat. "We're home."

Percy turned from the window and nodded. "Good to be back."

It took longer than I had wanted to reach our apartment, but traffic was something that was a part of life to me, so in a way, it was kind of nice to have it all back.

"_Now_," Percy emphasized when we finally pulled up outside our apartment building, "we're home." I laughed a little and paid the driver while my brother grabbed our things.

The two of us marched up to our apartment and swung the door open. Instantly, I wrinkled my nose in disgust. The place was possibly even messier than it had been at Christmas, then I noticed the three extra guys sitting at the table playing poker.

Now, I don't get irritated very easy. If you mind your own business and take care of your problems, there's nothing to worry about.

Unfortunately, there are a few things in this world that really bother me, and if one of those things are really irritating me, I can't get it out of my head. I literally have to do something or I go insane! (I was questioned for both OCD and schizophrenia, but in the end, it all seems to root from my ADHD.)

And one of the things I had yet to do anything about went by the name of Gabe Ugliano. My stepdad (insert disgusted look here).

I'm not completely sure why I hadn't just gotten rid of him myself. I guess part of the reason was my mom, (who was possibly the best person on the planet) or maybe it was because I didn't even think he was worth any my time, much less my energy.

The fact that he exists isn't the biggest thing that bothered me, and it wasn't that he trashed the apartment with garbage and other scraps of junk. What really got to me was the first thing he said to us.

"So, now you're both home," Gabe grumbled through the cigar hanging from his mouth.

I didn't need to give him an excuse to throw me out of the house till our mom got home, but I couldn't help myself. I shot him the fakest smile and replied. "Yeah, we are. Isn't that _awesome_?"

His small, black eyes met my big, blue ones, but I guess he decided he was too lazy to do anything at that moment because he just bristled and growled. "Watch that lip, girl."

Girl. Yep, that was all he called me. I'm not even sure he knows my name, but I don't care either way. I exhaled noisily (earning another glare from Gabe) and left the room.

"Where's my mom?" Percy asked as I reached the bedroom. I was too far away to hear Gabe's response, but I would bet it wasn't anything good.

A few minutes later Percy came marching up the stairs, and slammed the door. He tossed his bag onto the bed and fell on the floor next to me. "Home sweet home," my brother mumbled bitterly.

"So much for being happy about being back," I responded.

"I'm still glad to be back in the city, I just hate Gabe," he stated. "By the way, we're out of cash."

I gaped at him. "You gave him more cash?"

"I didn't realize there was a choice not to hand it over," Percy muttered, shaking his head pathetically.

I shrugged. "Whatever. Now, tell me what happened when the bus broke down. Why was Grover freaking out so much?"

"All right," Percy started, shifting back and forth, "after you left, I saw these three ladies running a fruit stand across the highway. They were knitting—"

I dramatically gasped, throwing my hands in front of my mouth. "_Knitting?_ Oh, no! Not _knittin_g of all things!"

"Leila! Be serious!" He huffed. "Come on, do you want to hear the story or not?"

"All right, all right," I motioned for him to continue and he sighed and began again.

"So they were knitting, and all of a sudden one of the ladies held up a sting and another cut it. Don't ask me why, because I don't know," he stated seeing or sensing my next question. "All I know is that it was bad. Really, really bad."

"I want to say a piece of like… super, supportive advice right about now," I told him, "but I can't. I had the same feeling about whatever Mr. Brunner and Grover were talking about. I don't know what it is—"

"You just know it's something so important, life as we know it is about to change," he finished with a slightly amused look on his face. "Man, that sounds cliché."

I agreed and stood up, pushing open the window.

"The worst part is that I can't get Grover's look of panic out my head," Percy admitted. "Every time I think about him or the ladies at the fruit stand or Mrs. Dodds… I get chills."

"You're still having nightmares?" He never got a chance to answer.

"Percy?" We both jumped a little at the sudden sound of our mom's voice so close to the room. "Leila?"

The two of us grinned, and all tension swept out of the room the minute she appeared in the doorway. "Oh," she reached over and hugged us both at the same time, but still somehow managing to squeeze us super tight. "I can't believe it! You've grown since Christmas!"

"I'd be worried if we didn't," I mouthed at Percy over her shoulder. He flicked my ear,but even my sarcasm wasn't enough to wipe that smile off his face.

Our mom worked at a candy shop in Grand Central called Sweet on America, so I was really happy when she handed Percy and I a huge bag of free samples for us to attack.

Right away, our mom wanted to know everything. Percy told the stories about what had gone on since Christmas, while I practically started drowning myself in blueberry sour strings. The one thing she never brought up was the expulsion, but I never really expected her to. Sally Jackson was the best mom ever, and the proof of this was just in the fact she never talked about bad things that happened to either of us.

The one thing I could never figure out was why anyone would leave her. But for some reason, our dad did. Percy and I never met him and I don't know, or remember anything about him

"Hey, Sally—how about some bean dip, huh?" Gabe called from the other room. I could hear a few other guys laugh and praise Gabe about how he 'properly trained his woman'.

I had to literally bite my tongue so hard I tasted blood to keep myself from getting up and giving those pigs a piece of my mind. One look at my brother and we both seemed to decide to just ignore it. Percy continued telling stories about Yancy slightly louder than before, but other than that, we didn't react.

The only mistake Percy made was hesitating when he got to telling her about the trip to the museum.

Now, my brother and I shared just about everything. We've known for a long time we weren't 'normal' twins. Both of us had the same height, weight, shoe size, skin tone, and hair color. Unfortunately, the only difference we had in appearance was that Percy had bright green eyes, I had piercing blue ones. Not many people tend to notice those things, which caused either Percy to be called a girl or me to be a called a boy. Altogether that situation gets embarrassing fast.

The good news, there are extreme differences in our personalities to balance all that out.

And this brings us to the fact that my brother is hopeless when it comes to lying. I'm almost completely sure he couldn't even lie if his life depended on it! Yes, he is _that_ bad. Lucky for him, I happened to be born with the ability to convince anyone of just about anything. Which is was why I took over the story when we got to the museum trip.

"What?" our mom asked when Percy abruptly stopped his story telling. "Did something scare you two?"

"No, Mom, don't worry. It's just my turn to talk. Percy has already talked more than any girl should," I teased. My brother laughed a bit and tossed a blue jellybean at my head. It missed, but he looked too relieved about not attempting to lie to really care.

I described the Roman and Greek art along with some other things that I had seen, but of course, didn't know the names of.

"I have a surprise," our mom revealed when I was done, leaning slightly closer to us. "We're going to the beach."

Percy froze. "Montauk?"

She nodded. "Three nights—same cabin."

"When?"

"As soon as I get changed," she said, smiling at us while the both of us were still frozen in our I'm-so-stunningly-happy-right-now-I'm-not-sure-what-to-do face. We hadn't been to Montauk since our tenth birthday, (thanks to Gabe and his gambling addiction) and I wasn't sure either of us could believe we were going.

Gabe suddenly appeared in the doorway. "Bean dip, Sally? Didn't you hear me?" His face was flushed with anger and embarrassment at the need to repeat himself; especially, in front of his poker buddies.

"I was on my way, honey," our mom said, while giving me and Percy warning looks to keep calm. "We were just talking about the trip."

"The trip?" he stated disbelievingly. "You mean you were serious about that?"

Percy exhaled loudly. "I knew it. He won't let us go."

"Of course he will. Your step father—," I grimaced at the reminder, "—is just worried about money. That's all. Besides, Gabriel won't have to settle for bean dip. I'll make him enough seven-layer dip for the whole weekend. Guacamole. Sour cream. The works."

Gabe's eyes lit up at the sound the dip. "So this money for your trip… it comes out of your clothes budget, right?"

"Yes, honey," my mother promised.

"And you won't take my car anywhere but there and back," he ordered.

"We'll be very careful," she assured him.

"Maybe if you hurry with that seven-layer dip..." Gabe shrugged and did his best to look deep in thought. "And maybe if the brats apologize for interrupting my poker game."

My scowl deepened and I thought, _There has to be a better option_. I wasn't expecting any sort of answer to my metal debate, but whether I was expecting and prepared for it or not, I got one.

_Maybe if I kick you in your soft spot. And make you sing soprano for a week._

The piece of blue taffy I was holding slipped from my hand.

I recognized Percy's metal 'voice' well enough, but his thoughts had never come in so clear before. I was used to the occasional creepy feeling if he was prying into my head, or picking up the general gist of his thoughts when I tried, but this was completely different. I actually '_heard'_ his thoughts.

Recovering from my shock, I tucked my short hair behind my ear and picked up the candy from off the floor.

Percy was still staring at Gabe with pure hated screaming from his expression. I realized with a start he had no clue I'd just heard his thoughts.

I wasn't really sure how I felt about that. In one sense, I could hear his thoughts and it was kind of reassuring to know you weren't fighting alone, but on the other side, I was freaking out! I couldn't figure out why the heck this weird thought-transporter turned on now.

"I'm really sorry I interrupted your incredibly important poker game," Percy told Gabe in a tone only truly stupid people would take seriously. "Please go back to it right now."

"So sorry," I muttered to him coldly.

"Yeah, whatever," Gabe said after a silence. He left, slamming the door loudly behind him.

"Thank you," our mom told us gratefully. "Once we get to Montauk, we'll talk more about..." she trailed off slowly then quickly continued, "whatever you've forgotten to tell me, okay?" We both smiled, but agreed to nothing.

"Get packing," she told us, indicating toward our bags we'd left abandoned on the bed then headed off to the kitchen.

"I've decided something," I announced to Percy while I unpacked the junk from the bottom of my backpack like broken pencils, a ruler, and random miniaturized objects no one ever really uses.

"Oh, no," he replied. "It doesn't involve another plot for revenge using a pipe line again, does it?"

"No," I snapped, "and that was the most awesome payback we've ever accomplished, Percy. Don't act like you didn't have fun."

He grinned. "What did you decide this time?"

"I'm either going to have an extremely good control on my temper by the time I turn thirteen, or I'm going to get arrested for ripping Gabe apart limb from limb." I rolled a mini stapler over in my hand, "Most likely the second one.

"It wouldn't even be so bad," I continued, "if he just had at least a small amount of decent manners."

"I don't think there's anything even close to manners is in his personality," Percy responded. "Of course, I'd probably die of shock if he ever tried to say anything even slightly nice."

I nodded. "Too true."

Exactly fifty-four minutes later, we had the car packed and ready to go.

To my surprise, packing the car had been relatively pain free. Although, at one point I did have to grit my teeth when Gabe complained loudly about how he would miss my mom's cooking more than her.

With a stern glance toward his most prized possession—one 1976 Camero complete with a rust colored interior and a peeling-paint exterior—he told Percy, "Not one scratch on this car, brain boy."

"_Brain_ boy?" I muttered, thinking about Percy's recent report card. I love my brother, but _smart_ is not a word I would use to describe him.

"Not one little scratch," he repeated, pointing a hot dog sized finger in my vision.

_Like we're going to be the ones driving_, _we're twelve!_

I stood a little straighter as Percy's voice rolled through my head. Gabe—thinking he must have caused the reaction—smirked slightly and tried to look more intimating.

I rolled my eyes and headed for the car.

"Shotgun!" Percy shouted from behind me.

"Never!" I called back, dashing for the car. I took great pride in how fast I was at running. I'd always been faster than my brother, and took any chance I could to remind him.

Unfortunately, where I was fast, my brother was strong. So sadly, when it came to a tug-of-war for the front seat, Percy won. "Ugh, so not fair," I grumbled and climbed into the back seat.

One of the greatest things about our Long Island cabin was the fact that it never changed. Some probably don't understand why I love something that is always the same every single time I see it, but when you're forced change schools every year, constantly meet new people (doctors, teachers, roommates, etc.), and your mom is always getting different jobs or hours, you can fully appreciate one solid thing out there staying the same.

It had three beds, one bathroom, and a kitchen/living room area. The cabin was half-sunk into a sand dune so everything inside had sand and spiders in it and the place really needed a new paint job, but it was still my favorite spot on possibly the whole planet.

After a dinner of hot dogs, soda, and candy, the three of us sat out on the sand, wrapped up in beach blankets to roast marshmallows for desert.

I laughed as Percy attempted to put out one of his marshmallows that had caught fire. He ended up having to bury it in sand to get rid of the flames, and even in the dark I could see him blushing.

"Fire doesn't seem to like you very much," I told Percy with a smirk.

"Well, I don't like it very much either," he muttered, gingerly starting to roast another marshmallow.

"Mom," I started, as she looked up with an amused look, "have you ever liked fire?"

"I've never been much of a fire person either," she admitted with a laugh

"Maybe it's inherited," I said with a shrug. "What about dad? What kind of person was he?"

She gave us a small, secret smile and said, "He was always more of a water person."

"What else was he?" Percy continued boldly.

Our mom's smile faltered a little, then turned a little wistful. "He was kind, tall, handsome, and powerful. But gentle, too. You both have his jet black hair, you know, and his eyes."

"Uh, mom, we have two different eye colors," I pointed out, exchanging a long glance with Percy.

"Both your eyes are the color of the sea," she said. "Just different regions.

"I wish he could see you now," she continued. "He would be so proud."

I smiled slightly, but couldn't fully appreciate the moment since Percy glum train of thought intervened.

_How can she say that? _He wondered with a grim expression.

I drug my toes into the sand and sighed. I've always known Percy had more trouble accepting that our dad would probably never be a part of our lives, but I guess because I never actually heard him say anything about it, I didn't bother to ask.

"How old were we?" Percy asked in a hard voice.

Our mom sighed and tucked her blanket a little tighter. "He was only with me for that one summer. Right here at this beach, this cabin."

I glanced up at the cabin behind and stared at it really hard, like maybe it could me the secret to where my dad went. That may be silly, and almost everyone would just consider it as just another sand covered building on Long Island, but to me, it was a link to someone I wish I had known.

"But…" Percy protested, setting his marshmallow aside before it caught fire again, "he knew us as babies."

"No, honey," she shook her head sadly. "He knew I was expecting, but he never saw you. He had to leave before you were born."

"He left _knowing_ you were pregnant?" I said.

"It wouldn't have mattered. He had to go," she replied simply.

"He did know," I stated. She nodded once in confirmation, but kept silent.

I exhaled sharply. That bit irritated me a little. He could have at least waited until after she had the baby to leave, but he didn't. "Did he know you were having twins?"

"That part _was_ a surprise," she admitted. "He knew I was pregnant with a boy, but you were the unexpected one, Leila."

"Not the first time I heard that," I muttered. "But what job could have been more important than sticking around for nine months just to see you at least have the kid?"

"Kids," Percy corrected.

"Either way," I snapped at him. "My point is… why was his job more important than you?"

"Hopefully one day you can understand why he had to leave, but right now…" she trailed off in a soft voice.

"Are you going to send us away?" Percy asked, changing the subject. "To another boarding school?"

"I don't know. I think..." she took a deep breath, "I think we'll have to do something."

"Because you don't want us around?" Percy grumbled.

I was so close to getting up and smacking him for that, but I caught the regretful look on his face and remembered my brother sometimes had no filter on the words that came out of his mouth. Whatever came to his head, he either acted on or volunteered out loud. I couldn't judge on that part since I seemed to have the same problem.

"Oh, no," our mom said in a heartbroken voice. "I—I have to, for your own good. I have to send you away."

"Because we're not normal," Percy stated.

"You say that like it's a bad thing, Percy. But you don't realize how important you both are. I thought Yancy… I thought it was far enough away. I thought you'd finally be safe."

"Important," I said, doubtfully. For almost my whole life I was told my parents didn't want me around. That I was obviously so unimportant and bothersome that I was sent to one boarding school after another just so my parents could get away from me.

"'Safe'," Percy continued, "from what?"

Our mom gazed at us both like we were missing the obvious.

Immediately, every horrible memory I had successfully blocked out, rushed back to me.

During naptime in pre-school, a poisonous snake had somehow managed to hide underneath my mat. When the teacher had laid me down, it came out and tried to bite me. But before it could do anything, Percy grabbed it and strangled it to death with his hands. As soon as our mom had come to pick us up and saw us playing with the dead snake, she had freaked and pulled us out of that place right away.

More memories threatened to be remembered, but I pushed them back. For the first time, I fully considered telling her about Mrs. Dodds. After everything that had happened to us, I had a feeling she would understand more about it than we would.

Percy must have read my expression because he gave me a knowing look toward the car. I didn't need to read his mind to know he thinking that something like Mrs. Dodds would end our trip to Montauk.

"I've tried to keep you as close to me as I could," our mom continued, staring at the fire with a faraway expression. "They told me it was a mistake."

"Oh, joy. More confusing talks about 'Them' again," I grumbled too low for anyone to hear.

"But there's only one other option—the place your father wanted to send you. And I just…" she hesitated for a second and closed her eyes. I wasn't even sure she was still talking to us; she might be just talking out loud, but I wasn't about to stop her. "I just can't stand to do that."

"Our father wanted us to go to a special school?" Percy asked.

"Not a school," she amended gently, "a summer camp."

"What kind of summer camp?" I said.

"I'm sorry," she said. "But I can't talk about it. I—I couldn't send either of you to that place. It might be saying goodbye to you for good."

"For good?" Percy repeated. "But if it's only a summer camp—"

This time, I did smack him. I heard him suck in a breath when I elbowed his ribs, but I guess he finally noticed how close to tears our mom was.

* * *

><p><strong>(AN: I know this doesn't end at the same spot as in the book, but I added some stuffs and needed to end here. Anyways, I've already started the next chapter so it shouldn't be too long… thanks for being so patient! Reviews help me update faster! I read and cherish each and every one XD)**

**And a special thanks to...  
><em>paigemeable, TheMusicKid, BookWorm77071, Percy's favorite sister, puretorchermynameiscaitlyn, Bailey, shimaxkutau, Annabeth Lucy granger, AgentCherry-Garcia212, <em>and_ K_  
>...for reviewing! Every one of you are purely AWESOME!<strong>

* * *

><p><strong>My answer to last chapter's question:<br>**I do not ride a bus to school, but I do take a bus to and from my winter and summer camps, then sometimes around town with my friends… Guess that's about 8 times a year at the least…

**This chapter's question:  
><strong>_How often do you go to the beach?_


	4. Four

**Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson or the main story line of this FANfiction.**

**Thank you, _TibbiToo_ for Beta-ing! :)**

* * *

><p><strong>Four<strong>

Later that night, it started to rain. And when I say rain, I mean storm.

Thunder shook the entire cabin and waves were crashing violently on the beach. I had never seen a storm this big so early in the year, but it pretty much just added to the list of the weird weather we had had for the rest of that year.

"Shoo little spider," I said, trying to help the bug out of my bed. "I want to go to sleep now, and you probably don't want to be crushed so move it along." I sighed, as the spider slowly started for the safety of the bed posts. "Forget it," I muttered, wandering back to the bathroom.

"Hey, Perce," I said, leaning against the doorframe.

"Hey," he said around his toothbrush. "'Thought you were going to bed."

"I am. There's just a spider right in the middle of my bed that decided it wants to move at a snail's pace to get out of the way," I explained.

Percy nodded and continued brushing.

"Hey," I said, remembering something, "what do you know about twin telepathy?"

He shrugged in '_nothing much' _sort of way and gave me a questioning look.

"Just wondering," I told him. "I've been trying to figure out exactly what it is… because I think we might have it."

Percy spit his toothpaste in the sink. "You're calling the weird invasion-of-the-thoughts-thing we have twin telepathy?"

"It's just a theory, and right now, it's my only theory so…" I trailed off as we headed for the bedroom, "yeah, I am."

"Why?" he asked, falling into his bed.

"Well, there's definitely something weird going on with our brains," I muttered, while I checked to make sure the spider had fled for safety.

He shrugged. "We figured that out a long time ago."

"This is different," I started slowly. "I can sort of… hear it all the time now."

"Hear what?" Percy said.

"Your thoughts, Percy!" I said, exasperated. "I can't get them to shut up!"

"_What?_" He practically yelled. "You can hear my thoughts?"

"Quiet!" I ordered, throwing a pillow at him. "Man, you're lucky it's raining so hard! Otherwise that would've woken mom up."

"You can hear my thoughts?" he repeated in lower tone.

"I can hear the full thoughts," I said. "Like the ones that are purely sentences no one ever says out loud."

"Except there isn't any cold sinking feeling anymore when it happens..." Percy trailed off, scratching his head.

"Well, you've either gotten used to it, or we've always had it and we're just officially discovering it now."

"Does it matter? We have it now and we know it's stuck," he said. "I don't want you reading my thoughts forever-"

"You really think I want to hear them?" I demanded. "You have the weirdest thought process on the planet!"

"Not the point," he told me.

"Yeah, the point is that I'm going to be stuck with the Percy Radio blasting through my head 24/7 for the rest of my life," I grumbled.

"At least this can't get worse." Percy heaved an exasperated sigh, "Now, see if you can block me out than."

"Are you kidding? I can't even figure out how to send thoughts, let alone block yours out." _Gosh, boys are stupid_, I thought irritably, crossing my arms.

"I am not!" he told me. "It's been a long day and this is freaky!"

My mouth dropped open. "What?" my brother asked self consciously.

"Did you just… answer my thoughts?" I stammered through my shock.

"I don't…" Percy's eyes widen in shock.

"Great," I stated. "This just got worse."

"How do I turn it off?" he said in a slightly panicked voice.

"Not so easy, is it?" I asked, sitting up in complete frustration.

"Leila!" he hissed, gripping his hair like he always did when he was nervous.

"We'll figure it out," I assured him.

"Well, we should do it soon because I'm not sure how much more of this I can take," he stated. "Until then, you could at least stop thought-oriented-insults."

"Yeah, you're right," I smirked. "It was awful of me to label all boys as stupid when it's definitely just you."

"Hey!" he protested. "I thought you were going to stop!"

"You only said thought-insults," I pointed out. "You never said anything about actual insults."

"You could stop those too," he offered.

"Eh," I shrugged, "that might be asking too much."

Percy huffed, "Figures."

"Let's talk about something else."

"What?" he said suspiciously.

"Calm down. You're not in trouble," I told him before going back to my point. "Why would a dad who has never met us, want our mom to send us to some summer camp?"

"That's what I want to know," Percy admitted. "I mean, I'm pretty sure we've met him at least once, but-"

"Wait, what?" I interrupted. "What do you mean we've met him? Mom said we never did."

"Yeah, I know," he responded. "But I remember I remember him smiling at me as a baby. I don't know how, but I remember."

"That sounds kind of lame," I said honestly. "And impossible. And-"

"Okay, okay," he stopped me. "I get it. It's not exactly…"

"Probable?" I tried.

He blinked. "I was going to say promising… but I guess either one works."

"Percy," I started, "our dad left before we were born. How could he have seen us?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. It might not even be real, Leila. We're off subject anyway."

"Right," I said, shaking my head. "Now, what reasons would mom have for _not_ sending us to this camp?"

"Maybe money?" Percy considered.

"Possibly," I admitted, "but it didn't sound like something that… _material_. It sounded like a different sort of problem."

"She did say that sending us there might be goodbye for good," he reminded me.

"All right, so the only thing I can think of for that is if this place was like…_ really_ far away," I stated. "Or she knows something about this place that dad didn't."

"I think it's more like she knows something about _us_ that _we_ don't know," Percy muttered. "You notice that too, right?"

"What?"

"That feeling that we're missing a really big piece of information to this whole thing," he said. "And I'm not just talking about this summer camp thing; I'm talking about Mrs. Dodds, whatever happened with that yarn- everything!"

I sighed. "I don't know, Percy. Let's just get some sleep. Maybe we'll figure it out tomorrow. Hopefully, whatever's going on with our heads will be un-stuck by morning, too."

"Yeah," Percy agreed tensely. "I mean, this can go on forever, right?"

The reality that this might never go away sunk in with the force of a speeding truck. My throat closed up as one last thought ran through both our heads: _What if it is like this forever?_

* * *

><p>In my dream, I was standing on a solid rock in the middle of the ocean.<p>

All around me, waves crashed and roared, as if trying to pull me down into their depths but couldn't, since I was the one refusing to move. Icy wind cut straight into my skin like a sharp razor, except every time a larger rush would've knocked me over, a wall of water rose around me for protection.

"I'm not afraid," I said aloud. I had no idea who I was talking to, but I felt a presence stir around me. In my hand, I was holding a long knife with a large, gleaming emerald at the base of the hilt. The comfortable weight of the weapon was something entirely new, but also strangely familiar, like I used it a lot.

"I am _not_ afraid of you!" I repeated above the winds.

The presence shifted again, and this time, it spoke. A chilling voice that sounded a million years old murmured, "You should be."

"I _am_ protected," I told it firmly while gripping the blade tighter.

"So you think…" the voice trailed off to a haunting hum in the air.

Before I could say anymore, I was jerked awake. "Leila, wake up!" Percy commanded, shaking me again.

"What the heck?" I mumbled, trying to shake off my sleep.

"Come on," he insisted. "Get up!"

I rubbed my eyes. "Why? What's wrong?"

"There's a huge storm going on. You have to see this," he told me, walking over to the window. "Oh, man. The waves are like twenty feet high!"

"No way," I said and scrambled out of bed to join him by the window.

Looking out at the crashing waves, I realized Percy was right. Sand, rain, and ocean water rose up and mixed together with the wind. It was one of the craziest storms I had ever seen this early in the year.

I tilted my head to the side. "It's almost looks like a…"

"Hurricane," our mom's voice finished from the doorway. We whirled around to find her leaning against the doorway in her pajamas.

"I thought it was too early in the year for hurricanes," I stated while she came to stand behind us.

"I guess the ocean forgot," Percy muttered.

A loud _BANG! BANG! BANG!_ on the cabin's door made all of us jump. We followed our mom out to the door as the banging started again, only this time, accompanied with frantic shouting and screaming.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"I don't know, but both of you wait here," our mom replied, motioning us away from the door. I snatched up Percy's hand while she continued across the room. He turned and tried for a reassuring smile, but it came out more like a nervous grimace.

She threw open the door, but backed up quickly as someone crashed inside absolutely soaked. "Grover?" Percy said in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

"Searching all night," he said. His voice sounded short and hoarse from yelling, but he went on. "What were you thinking?"

Our mom froze and turned slowly to look at us. "What happened at school? What didn't you tell me?" She demanded with an expression of pure horror.

_"O Zeu kai alloi theoi! _It's right behind me!" Grover cried loudly. "Didn't you _tell _her?"

I shook my head, "Did you curse in Greek?"

_"Leila!" _Our mom snapped. "What happened-tell me _now_!"

"I don't really know," I admitted, looking at Percy for support. He blinked and stammered through the story of Mrs. Dodds and the weird fruit stand incident.

"Get to the car," she ordered, grabbing her keys and handing each of us jackets. "All of you. _Go_!_" _The four of us dashed through the rain to the Camero. I probably could have run faster, but I was a little distracted by Grover's apparent… condition. I still wasn't completely sure what I was seeing. He seemed normal enough… but then I focused in on his legs again.

"Leila, take the front," Percy told me, lightly shoving me toward the passenger's side of the car backing my thought process.

Before any us were even buckled, our mom had started the car and took off down one of the long back roads winding aroundLong Island.

"So, you and my mom…" Percy started, "know each other?"

"Not exactly. I mean, we've never met in person," Grover explained from the backseat. "But she knew I was watching you both."

"And _why_ were you watching us?"

"Keeping tabs on you," he amended. "Making sure you guys were okay."

"Not going to lie," I said, turning around and smirking at him, "that sounds pretty stalker-ish."

Grover frowned a little and looked between Percy and me, "I wasn't faking being your friend. I _am _your friend."

As we continued down the road, I couldn't help but stare at Grover. It was like seeing someone for the first time all over again-but this time, everything made sense.

It had always been pretty obvious to me that he could run and walk (and probably climb) just fine, but that never explained why he always sat out of gym and other rec activies. Now, it was very clear why.

I cocked my head to one side, "What _are _you, exactly?"

"That doesn't matter right now."

"Somehow," I muttered, facing forward again, "I don't think that's true."

"It doesn't matter?" Percy repeated incredulously. "From the waist down, my friend is a donkey—" (I don't think you've established that Leila has figured out that Grover is a Satyr yet)

I actually jumped slightly when Grover let out a long, annoyed bleating sound. "Goat!" he snapped.

"What?"

"I'm a _goat," _he stressed, "from the waist down."

I shrugged, "You just said it didn't matter."

Grover bleated again,_ "Blaa-ha-ha!_ There are satyrs who would trample you under hoof for such an insult!"

"Whoa. Wait," Percy held up his hands. "Satyrs. You mean like… Mr. Brunner's myths?"

"Were those old ladies at the fruit stand a _myth, _Percy? Was Mrs. Dodds a myth?"

"So you _admit _there was a Mrs. Dodds!" Percy said, pointing a finger at Grover in an accusing way.

I sighed in exasperation, "You just won't let that go, will you? He just admitted it, Percy!"

"Then why—"

"The less either of you knew, the fewer monsters you'd attract," Grover rattled off like he had said it a thousand times before. "We put Mist over the humans' eyes. We hoped you'd think the Kindly One was a hallucination. But it was no good. You started to realize who you are."

I wanted to bang Grover's head against the dashboard until he actually gave us straight answers. "And what _are_ we, exactly?"

"What do you mean?" Percy insisted.

An enraged roar sounded loudly behind us, but even as an echo, the car shook with the sheer force of it.

"What was that?" My voice came out a bit higher than normal.

"There's too much to explain and not enough time," our mom told me. "We have to get you to safety."

"Safety from what?" Percy demanded. "Who's after us?"

"Oh, nobody much. Just the Lord of the Dead and a few of his blood-thirstiest minions. No one to worry about really," Grover said sarcastically.

"Lord of the _what_?"

Our mom's hands tighten on the wheel, "Grover!"

"Sorry, Mrs. Jackson," he apologized, glancing out the back window as another roar shook the windows. "Could you drive faster, please?" She stepped down harder on the gas pedal and made another sharp turn.

"Where are we going?" Percy asked.

Our mom took a deep breath, "The summer camp I told you about. The place your father wanted to send you."

"The place you didn't want us to go."

I shook my head, "Why send us now?"

"Please, this is hard enough. Try to understand," she pleaded. "You're in danger."

Out of the corner of my eye, I could Percy tugging on the ends of his hair. Anyone else would've probably just brushed it off, but I knew him. He was nervous."Because some old ladies cut yarn?"

"Those weren't old ladies. Those were the Fates. Do you know what it means—the fact they appeared in front of you? They only do that when you're about to…" Grover stopped for a second, "When someone's about to die."

"Whoa," Percy stated. "You said 'you.'"

"No I didn't," he protested. "I said 'someone.'"

"You meant 'you.' As in _me._"

"I meant _you, _like 'someone.' Not you, _you._"

"Percy's going to _die_?" I screamed.

"Stop it!" my mom told us, speeding up even more.

I glared out the windows, trying to see anything past the sheeting rain, but it was no use. Everything just looked like a mix of watercolor paints. "Can you even see?" I asked our mom, squinting out the windshield. She ignored my question and kept driving much faster than possibly any speed limit.

I heard it before I saw it.

Another enraged roar came up behind up, and when the back windshield wipers got aside some of the water, I got a fuzzy glimpse of what was chasing us.

The creature was about twice the size of me with thick hair and coal black eyes shining in our rear headlights. I swallowed hard. "Mom…"

"I see it," she replied quietly, but even as she said this, we continued at the same steady speed. As if it had finally spotted us, the creature bellowed, pointed its head down towards us-showing off some gleaming, ultra pointed horns-then started charging straight at us.

"Mom?" I repeated. The rest of my question got caught in my throat because it was less than ten feet from us now and we were _still_ letting the thing get closer.

"Mom!" I shouted. At less than five feet, I cringed against the back of my seat and braced myself for the impact.

Suddenly, she wrenched the wheel sharply to the left. The creature went barreling past us with only inches to spare.

"What was that?" Percy asked, whipping around wildly trying to get a better look at the thing.

"We're almost there," my mother said, leaving another question unanswered. "Another mile. Please. Please. Please."

I had no idea what this camp would look like or how it would help us fend off whatever had been about to hit the back of our car, but I kept searching for some sign to tell us that we were almost there. Sadly, all I could see were PICK YOUR OWN STRAWBERRIES signs and somehow I didn't think strawberries would be much help in this situation.

_She really hadn't been human. She'd meant to kill me. _The unwelcomed thought echoed through my head, making me curl my legs against the seat.

I focused my thoughts, trying to clearly make them into words. Fortunately or unfortunately, it worked. _What are you talking about?_

_Mrs. Dodds. She meant to kill us._

I shifted in my seat. _It's worse than that, Percy. She tried-_

_And almost succeeded,_ he finished with a shudder.

_I can't believe it,_ I huffed.

_What? That someone actually tried to end our short existence at twelve?_

_No,_ I disagreed. _That even in our thoughts you can interrupt me!_

In my head, I felt him smile. It was a weird sensation, but also sort of natural-like I was already used to having Percy in my head all the time.

Just as I was about to ask where we were, and if we were any closer, all the hairs on the back of neck rose up and stood on end. A bright flash cut the sky and the lightning hit our car, making us swerve off the road and spinning toward a deep ditch.

The last thing I remembered was my head coming in contact with the dashboard before my vision swam black.

* * *

><p><strong>(AN: You guys are amazing with reviews! I love getting and reading them. Thanks! You are all awesome!)<strong>

**And a special thanks to...  
><em>Bailey, Percy's favorite sister, AgentCherry-Garcia212, puretorchermynameiscaitlyn, paigemeable, Bella Jackson, Little CatZ, ImogenXx, SaguaroCactus, Andrea Andrews, TotesTabs, <em>and_ K_  
>...for reviewing! Okay, this is a lot more popular then I thought it would be. Of course, that's all thanks to you all! ;)<strong>

* * *

><p><strong>My answer to last chapter's question:<br>**Since I live about five minutes from the beach, I see it every day. I guess I actually go there about every other day to run my dog…

**This chapter's question:  
><strong>_Have you ever hit your head hard enough to pass out?_


	5. Five

**Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson or the main story line of this FANfiction.**

**Thank you, _AgentCherry-Garcia_ for looking over this chapter! :)**

* * *

><p><strong>Five<strong>

I was moving again. Or at least—I thought I was. My head was spinning so much I couldn't really tell if I was actually awake.

Voices swam in the background but of course, I couldn't tell what they were saying. Everything sounded muffled, like I was trying to hear from underwater, or through a pair of headphones. I could make out muted sounds—enough to know someone was talking—but what they were actually saying was lost. On the other hand, every noise I made seemed extremely loud. My heartbeat reminded me of a jack-hammer and my breathing sounded like some squeaky car-brakes.

I groaned loudly and tried to hold my head still, but couldn't because someone was dragging me around by the arms. My stomach lunched so violently at the sudden movements, I'm surprised I didn't get sick. I groaned as the dragging slowed and tried to open my eyes.

"Leila," someone growled right next to my ear. "Be quiet!" The sound was still hard to understand, but I got the meaning well enough. I clamped my mouth shut and tried not to scream or get sick.

Eventually, the dragging stopped and soon after I felt damp grass against my soaked sweatshirt.

I finally forced my eyes to focus… then really wished I hadn't. The thing I had seen chasing us was standing about ten feet away. My heart skipped a beat then resumed beating unevenly when I realized it wasn't interested in me. I noticed a little too late why.

By the time the creature raised its large fists, she was too far out of reach. Both its hands were wrapped tightly around my mom's neck. His fists were big and wound so tight, they went completely around her neck… twice. I wanted to cry, scream, and try to help all at the same time.

I got as far as sitting up, but couldn't figure out how to move from there. I felt even sicker sitting. I couldn't tell if the reason was because I hit my head so hard or from seeing my mom struggling to tear the hands off her throat.

I tried pushing myself up on my hands, but my wrist collapsed underneath my weight. I cursed as a mix of tears and rain streamed down my face. The salt water burned on the way down. I reached up, trying to stop the pain. When I looked down at my hands again, they were hot and slick with blood.

_So much blood… _I thought before I leaned over and retched into the grass. It felt disgusting, but also a bit relieving given that it took some of the sick feelings with it.

I figured I was hallucinating, because nothing was making sense. I didn't believe in monsters or pass out like a girl on daytime TV. I've been in pain, but I hadn't thrown up or cried since I was about eight years old.

A bright flash cut through the air in front of me, flinging me backwards into the grass. The light slowly faded then disappeared taking my mom with it. A long bellow of satisfaction roared from the creature. Somewhere off to my side, Percy yelled.

Thankfully, my consciousness seeped away, taking the disturbing scene with it.

When I finally came to, I was _not_ happy.

My body was stiff and filthy, and my brain was all muddled, like I had held my breath too long after a five mile run. Blood pounded through my head in a very uncomfortable, disjointed rhythm.

"Ugh," I groaned, trying to make my eyes work. Eventually, my lids cooperated enough and I opened my eyes. Bright sunlight blinded me for a second and on reflex, my eyes snapped closed again.

Slower this time, I let my eyes adjust to the room around me.

Beds covered in ultra white sheets lined the walls and an awful too-clean smell burned my nose and the back of my throat. I didn't have tons of experience with hospitals, but I had visited enough doctors over the years to realize where I was.

Pushing away the panic, I took a deep breath and tried to sit up.

Immediately, one of the world's worst head rushes crashed over me; dark spots danced across vision. "Holy…" I muttered, holding the side of my head. As soon as the worst had passed, I swung my feet over the side of the bed, but stopped when everything spun out of control.

"Might not want to go anywhere," someone suggested.

I whipped my head around and regretted it. I growled in reply, and tried to steady my spinning head. "Dizzy?" the boy asked.

"Maybe," I snapped.

"I'll take that as a yes."

Even though I was gripping the bedrail trying not to pass out, I managed to mutter, "What gave me away?" I mentally congratulated myself that I was able to maintain most of my usual sarcastic tone. When I was finally able to focus on the person kneeling in front of me, the first thought I had was: _Gold._

Thinking back, I was a bit embarrassed about that thought but _gold_ pretty much summed up everything about him. He had clear hazel eyes and a natural tan that practically glowed from his skin. A mix of dark hair that couldn't seem to decide what shade of blond it wanted to be framed his superior, sympathetic smile. "It would pass if you stopped moving so much."

I slowly calmed down enough to stop the spinning. "Where am I?"

"The infirmary," the boy said, gesturing around like it should be obvious.

I exhaled sharply. "No, I meant that literally. I have no idea where I am."

"Can you remember your name?" he asked with a completely serious expression.

"I don't have memory loss," I told him.

He arched an eyebrow. "Then can you tell me the last thing you remember?"

"I remember—," I paused for a second, realizing I didn't even know this kid. He could be a mass murderer and I wouldn't know the difference. "—driving down Long Island road with my mom, brother, and friend… I think we… crashed the car or something."

"The Camero? Yeah, it's totaled. Lightning took the roof straight off," he said.

My eyes widened. All doubts about who this kid was or how much harm he could cause me went out the window. "_Lightning?_ What about Percy—my brother—is he—"

"Hey, calm down," the boy ordered, resting a hand on my arm. "Percy's fine. He was in here, but woke up a few days ago completely healthy."

I silently breathed a sigh of relief. Percy's crazy stunts really worried me sometimes. He stressed me out more than anything, but I usually didn't mind. He was my brother, so keeping him out of trouble at all costs was in the job description. "You're sure?"

"I'll send someone for him in just a minute and let you decide the rest. First, I have to go get Lee. He'll want to check on you now since that you're awake," he said. "Try to stay still. It's better on your head."

I braced my head on my knees and sighed. "Are you always this bossy?"

"Are you always this grumpy?" He countered, smiling while I frowned at him. "I'll be right back."

"Wait—," I called. "What's your name?"

"Will," he answered as he walked out the door not bothering to turn around.

"Jerk," I mumbled under my breath. It had been a while since anyone besides Percy really gave it back to me, and I surprised to discover how much fun it was; even if it was with a suspected mass murder.

"Leila Jackson?" another voice asked. I glanced up to see another guy with blond hair walk into the room.

"That's me," I confirmed with a thumbs up.

"I'm Lee Fletcher," the older boy introduced. I gave him a small wave of acknowledgment as Will walked in behind him.

I lifted my head slowly away when Will sat down next to me, offering me a glass. "I've never taken any sort of pain-killer in my life and I'm not starting now," I warned him. "You won't be convincing me."

He let out a frustrated sigh like he had already had this conversation too many times. "It _would _help."

_Yeah, okay, _I thought, openly scowling at him. _I bet that's what you say to all your victims, marauder._

"How are you feeling?" Lee interrupted, cutting off my not-so-nice response to Will.

"I'm fine."

Lee raised an eyebrow. "You're sure?"

"She was majorly dizzy when she first woke up," Will told him still holding the drink out to me. "But she's able to sit up now, so I'd say it's getting better."

"It's _my_ head!" I griped, giving him my best _back-off_ glare.

Lee nodded to Will, completely ignoring my outburst. "You mind if I take a look?"

"He just needs to make sure everything's okay so we release you," Will added, seeing my hesitation.

"'Release' me?"

"Let you leave the infirmary without us worrying," he corrected.

I chewed on my lip. "Fine," I decided, "but if this starts to hurt…"

"We'll stop," Lee promised. I took a deep breath and tried to stay as still as possible while Lee carefully started his work.

"All right," I said, trying not to focus on the small bits of pain. "So, this 'infirmary'… where exactly is that? Where are we?"

"That's probably something Percy should tell you," Will said. "It's not something that can be… easily explained."

"Huh," Lee stepped back and looked at me for a long moment. "Let me see your wrist."

For the first time since I woke up, I noticed a short brace wrapped around my hand. "What's wrong with it?" I asked as Lee carefully removed the bandage.

Lee turned my wrist over several times. "Apparently nothing," he muttered, giving me a long look. I shifted under his stare and sneaked a glance at Will.

He looked as confused as I felt. "What is it?"

"You…" Lee trailed off.

"What's wrong with me?" I insisted.

"Nothing!" Lee replied quickly. "That's the problem. There's nothing wrong with your wrist or your head."

"That's bad?" I checked.

Will started, "Leila, when you came here, your wrist was completely snapped in half and you had a concussion. Your eyes wouldn't focus, Percy told us you threw up getting up the hill, and even in your sleep you were complaining about the dizziness."

I shrugged. "So what? I've always been a fast healer."

"This isn't your typical middle school paper cut—"

"And do I look like your 'typical middle school girl'?" I demanded, clenching my fists. "You might be older than me, but I'd watch what you say. You have no idea what I have had to go through at my middle school. Honestly, I'm getting tired of all of this. Just let me see Percy so I can get out of this place."

Before Will could respond, Lee continued with his original train of thought. "I've seen a lot of half-bloods, but this is one of the strangest ones."

"Half-bloods? What the heck are you talking about?"

Lee ignored me again. "Okay, even though your head and wrist look all right you should still drink the nectar."

"Got it here," Will stated, holding out the glass, "but she's already decided she's not drinking it."

"Medication does not mix well with me or my mental state," I told them. "I can't even take Advil."

"It's not medicine," Lee assured me while Will rolled his eyes like I was the slowest person on Earth.

I hesitated but something in Will's challenging stance made me mad. He had a cocky smile on his face like he already knew I wouldn't try it. With one last glare at Will, I raised the glass to my mouth and slowly tilted it back. I nearly choked when the taste was so familiar. I didn't even take a breath until nearly half the glass was down.

Will smirked. "I guess you don't think it's poisoned?"

I smiled crookedly at the glass in my hands. The color was deep gold, but it tasted so much like lemonade I figured I must be going a little color blind. My nose still twitched from the slightly crisp lemon, and my tongue burned from the sweet. A shiver ran down my spine.

It was the perfect balance I constantly craved and never got tired of. It tasted like cold, lonely nights in my dorm, hot afternoons exploring New York City, chasing fireflies around a dark Central Park, and napping on the beach at Long Island Sound.

My throat closed up a little as I thought back to the look on my mom's face. A prickly sting started behind my eyes and I realized I was about to start crying all over again. I took a deep breath and stopped the emotion before it went completely out of control. I never cried, and after the humiliating experience when mom disappeared, I wasn't going to start. Especially since I usually made an effort not to show weakness in front of people I barely know.

When I looked up, Lee smiled. "So what's it taste like?"

"Um… lemonade," I said. "Isn't that what it is?"

"It's nectar so it tastes different for every half-blood," he shrugged. There was that word again. _Half-blood. _"The only thing left to figure out is why it tastes lemonade to you. Anyways, if you feel any nausea or pain later," he said while he collected his things, "come back so we can check it out."

"I will," I promised, knowing it was a bold-faced lie. I wasn't going to come back here even if my eyes started bleeding from pain. He gave me one last nod and left the room.

Will leaned back against the wall, eyeing me critically. "Where'd you learn to do that?"

"Do what?"

"Just… stop feeling things. I mean, I saw you," he stated. "You were about to cry… you were about to completely break down then it just… stopped."

"I don't know what you're talking about," I said, ignoring his exasperated look.

"Come on," he insisted. "How'd you do it? I mean, most girls are completely out of control when it comes to emotions—"

"Okay, okay," I sighed, rubbing my temples. "Just_ please_, shut up."

He held up his hands in surrender. "Fine—"

"Do you want to know or not?" I hissed. "Because you don't sound very quiet to me!" Will motioned silently toward me, encouraging me to continue.

"I just got kicked out of my _sixth_ boarding school. I practically grew up not showing anyone anything because people will and _do _use any sign of weakness as an excuse to torture you. Eventually, you learn just to… forget it. The fights, the comments, the little side remarks…" I sighed. "Guilt is an emotion that's given way too much time. I guess I don't think any emotion is actually worth stressing over. Crying doesn't solve anything for me either."

"Weird," Will breathed.

I looked down and huffed. "If you say so."

Percy appeared in the door, slightly out of breath but otherwise looking all right. "Hey," he gasped, moving next to me.

I smiled over at him. "Why are you so out of breath?"

The bed sagged when he dropped down next to me. He smiled at my easy tone with relief. "I just ran all the way across camp, that's why."

"_Camp?_" I choked out.

He tugged on the end of his hair. "Yeah, uh… I guess I should explain…"

"That'd be nice," I commented wryly. Percy gave me a secretive smile that said,_ Yeah, I know how confused you feel._

"I'll just..." Will shifted awkwardly. "Uh... I'll go."

He turned but before he could disappear, I called, "Hey, Will... thanks for... you know…" I gestured around the hospital.

"No problem," he said, rolling his eyes a little. "It's kind of my job."

"I know," I said, brushing my hair out of my eyes, "but I still thought I'd say thanks."

"I didn't mean—," he stopped and just shook his head. "Yeah, sure. You're welcome."

"So," Percy started after Will left the room, "you're... okay?"

"I'm fine, Percy," I told him. "I swear. Everyone just over reacted a bit."

He raised an eyebrow. "Over reacted? You're still—"

"A bit dizzy," I finished, "but_ just fine_."

"I know when you're being stubborn enough not to _accept the truth_," he growled at me.

I shrugged one shoulder and rested back against the bed. "Whatever. You've got more important explaining to do anyway."

Percy paused and let out a long breath. "What's the last thing you remember?" he asked quietly. Even though he body was angled toward me, between his wary expression and serious tone I could tell this was something he _really _didn't want to talk about.

"Will asked the same thing," I said, carefully side-stepping his question.

"I know you're avoiding the question," he stated. "But I'll play along: What'd you tell him?"

"I told him I remembered driving done Long Island road, then crashing and passing out," I explained.

"You lied," Percy translated, shaking his head. "You have problems, Leila."

"Why the heck would I tell anyone here the truth?" I snapped. "I woke having no idea what happened, no idea where you were, and no idea how I got here!"

"Look, I didn't mean to be so..."

"Harsh?" I offered in a bitter tone.

Percy sighed. "I guess. But that's not the point. You can trust these people, Leila. They're nothing like the crazy therapies or rehabs we've seen over the years."

I should've been relieved at this information, but all I felt like doing was screaming at him. I wanted to yell at him, say he was going against everything we had ever said about doctors, nurses, or any medical associated place. The problem was I had to trust Percy's judgment. He might be oblivious, but he sure wasn't stupid.

"I'm not sure if I agree…"

He nodded. "But you'll go with it."

"I kind of have no other choice," I muttered.

"Things could be worse," he pointed out. "Anyway, what's really last thing you remember?"

"I remember…" I trailed off then took a deep breath. "You set me done in the grass, telling me to be quiet—"

"Which you never did," Percy grumbled. "Great job with the listening skills."

"Watch it," I warned, poking him in the side with my toe.

"Yeah, yeah," he muttered. "Just keep going."

"I threw up and then saw… Mom…I'm still not completely sure what I saw after that," I admitted. "It honestly feels like the Mrs. Dodds thing all over again."

"Let me guess, you saw Mom disappear in a bunch of golden light."

I set the glass down then folded my hands tightly. "Pretty much… Wait… I can't hear your thoughts anymore," I realized.

"It's not that big of a deal," he replied. "I can't hear yours either, but they're still there somewhere. I can sort of... feel it."

I wrinkled my nose in concentration and shifted through my thoughts. I searched further and further then I hit it. At the back base of my skull, I could feel a sort of... window. It was a flimsy, easily broken barrier. "How did it get there?"

Percy shook his head. "I don't know. All I can figure is that after you hit your head, maybe you closed it off or something."

"Maybe," I murmured. "But Percy, if I closed it off when I hit my head, what opened it?"

"I've been wondering that… but I figured it might have always been open, we just... weren't strong enough to actually send thoughts or something."

"Okay, so last... wait, what day is it?"

"Wednesday," he answered.

"_Wednesday?_!" I stammered in shock. "I was out _for four days_?" Percy nodded slowly.

"Okay," I continued shakily. "This started almost a week ago then."

"Last Friday night, yeah," he said, eyeing me warily like he was waiting for me to start shouting again.

"Stop looking at me like that," I snapped. "It's all just a bit of a shock. Now, what could've triggered our thoughts to going from 'Oh, whenever I feel like it!' to 'I want to hear every single thing this person rambles on about, especially every single complaint about how much he hates his stepfather'."

Percy shot me a glare and crossed his arms. "Was that the first thought you heard?"

"Uh-huh," I said. "Gabe had just said something really mean comment to mom and you threatened him in your head. Do you think that's important?"

"Who knows? It could be," he agreed. "It was the first time I had gotten really mad in a couple of weeks so..."

"So you think sudden rushes of crazy emotions might be the key? Because if that's it, you have a lot of work to do. Especially around Gabe."

"Not funny," he told me. "And I was mad before that. Right after the Latin final… which I still can't believe you never finished. You completely failed that class!"

I rolled my eyes. "Oh come on, Percy. It's not like I'm ever going to use that stuff in life." He froze and stared at me like I had just admitted I've tried to commit suicide. "What'd I say?"

"Um... nothing. I'll explain that in minute..." he shook his head. "Look, the last time you alien-invaded my head the normal way—"

"Normal is a bit of a stretch," I warned him. "Original is closer than 'normal'."

"All right, fine. I really don't care what you call it. You get the point," he said. "We just have to figure out—"

A chill slowly seeped down my spine. "Ohmigosh, I remember when it was."

He started. "What?"

"The last time I tried to get information from your head was _months ago,_" I breathed. "At the museum…"

"With Mrs. Dodds," Percy finished, realizing my train of thought. "Is it possible that that… 'incident' was the what caused this telepathy thing to happened?"

"It would help if Grover would just fess up and the whole story," I huffed. "Until then we're stuck with long, sleepless nights full of guessing games and—"

"Actually," Percy stated, "it isn't as complicated as we thought."

"Wait… what?"

"Yeah," he continued. "It's actually has a really easy explanation."

I waited. "What?" Percy asked self-consciously.

"Aren't you going to _tell_ me?" I demanded.

"Oh, um, I guess… I'm not sure you'll believe me," Percy warned. "I didn't really believe it at first but now…"

"You believe it?"

He shrugged. "There wasn't many other choices."

"Just tell me already."

"I don't really want to say it out loud," he admitted. "It still so weird… we did NOT see this coming."

I crossed my arms over my chest. "Try me."

"All right," he said, "but don't say I didn't warn you…"

He leaned forward slowly. "You're a wizard, Leila," Percy stage-whispered in a creepy Hagrid-like tone.

I stared at him. "What's wrong with you?"

"Oh come on! I was only kidding! Although if you really thought about, that really isn't too far off."

"Yeah. Whatever," I stated.

"No, seriously!" he objected. "We're demigods."

"Okay, sure! And didn't I tell you? I'm not actually your sister! She died nine years ago." I leaned forward and in mock-pity tone continued. "My condolences."

"Leila, really," he insisted. "Our dad is a Greek god. We _are_ demigods. Except now I kind of want testing done for that last comment. And then in the case it came out negative—and you weren't really my sister—this wouldn't apply to you at all! Man, that'd be awkward…"

I rolled my eyes. "You've _got _to be kidding me, Percy."

"I kid you not."

"Percy!" I said, kicking him with my foot. "Be serious! What happened?"

"Well, _Lei-la_," Percy said in a slow tone, pronouncing my name in two syllables. "I am not kid-ding."

I shrugged one shoulder. "Fine. I'll let you live in denial. Go ahead."

"Fine," he mimicked. "I'll let _you_ live in denial. For now."

"I'm not falling for it," I told him. "Let it go."

"Either way," he said. "I think you'll like it here. It's kind of… fun."

"'Fun'? Mom just _died_ and you're off having _fun?"_

"She didn't die!" he protested. "She's not dead—"

"Enlighten me then, oh great Oblivious One," I said. "What happened to her?"

He faltered. "I…"

"Yes?"

"I don't know, okay?" he snapped. "I just know that she's not dead. If she was dead… I would know it. I just would."

I sighed. "Percy, I don't want her to be dead. That'd be the most awful thing; especially now. But you can't just deny true facts—"

"Exactly, they aren't true facts," he stated stubbornly. "She's not gone. At least not permanently."

"According to you, here are our facts: we're related to a god and mom isn't dead; only 'gone'." I huffed. "What's next? Grover is actually that donkey-thing?"

"No," Percy said sharply. "He's part goat, not donkey."

"You're joking."

"I-am-not!" he growled back. "Leila, this is real."

I shrugged one shoulder in response then stood up. "Whatever. Come on then, time to show me around this magical camp of yours."

He tapped the side of his head. "You sure you're ready?"

I nodded lightly. "About as ready as I'll ever be."

* * *

><p><strong>(AN: Wow, you guys have had some pretty crazy experiences! I loved hearing them all! Anyways, sorry for the late update everyone! School have been super busy right now :P I'll do my best to update earlier!)**

**And a special thanks to...  
><em>paigemeable, GoddessOfNight08, puretorcherismynamecaitlyn, Rae-Prite, Percy's favorite sister, Rewind-and-Freeze, BookWorm77071, angelfabeth, NerdyMusician513, <em>and_ K_  
>...for reviewing! All of you are too awesome for words!<strong>

* * *

><p><strong>My answer to last chapter's question:<br>**Have I ever passed out? Not that I can remember... Once at summer camp, I got kicked in the head so hard the nurse wanted to send me home. I was able to get out of it so I stayed... it was worth it haha yeah...

**This chapter's question:  
><strong>_Have you ever been to the hospital? If yes and you don't mind sharing, how many times?_


	6. Six

**Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson or the main story line of this FANfiction.**

**Thank you, **_**AgentCherry-Garcia**_** for Beta-ing this chapter! :)**

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><p><strong>Six<strong>

If you ever wake up having no idea where you are and _your_ twin brother confesses some life-altering news that makes no sense—my advice: believe it all quick, or cut him out of your life like he never existed and run away fast.

Now that you understand what you should do, let's go over what you definitely should _NOT _do.

You definitely shouldn't walk off wondering what could've happened if you stayed. See, it doesn't work that way. You'll just end up being hunted for the rest of your life and you end up wondering why the heck you hadn't just stayed in the first place. Yeah, that sounds like a great time.

The option of leaving it only works if you are willing to forget everything and everyone you saw and know. Of course, this will only work for anyone who has no curious bone in their body. I'll admit, the truth is dangerous, but not knowing is actually easy. You just have a very fine line to walk. I mean, look at me—I survived twelve years but not without proper protection.

Like they ignorance is bliss, but the truth can set you free. Or in this case: get you painfully slaughtered by monsters you "don't believe in".

The choice is yours.

Instinct is usually something you can trust. In all my experience, instinct has been right 99.99% of the time. Of course, leave it to that 00.01% percent of my brain that is made up of pure logic to be right this time.

After Percy helped me out of the infirmary, he led me down a long hallway but stopped and faced when he reached a screen door. Sunlight poured through casting weird shadows around the hall as Percy rocked back and forth on is heels.

"Ok," he started, "I know you don't believe about this whole demigod/half-blood thing, but it is true."

I just stared at him. No matter how determined Percy seemed about this story, I couldn't believe it. It was all just too crazy. First what attacked our car, then with what happened to Mom…

He sighed. "I know it's hard, but how do explain Mrs. Dodds or the Minotaur following our car?" Thunder sounded outside, making the entire floor shake.

I braced myself against the wall as the house shook from the force. "What was that?"

"Names have power." Percy shrugged. "I'm still not sure why we can't use them if we're safe from monsters while in camp borders, but that wasn't the point."

"Whatever." I shifted my weight and glanced out the door. "Look, I don't have anything to explain. I'm crazy, Percy, remember? The things I've seen aren't real. Countless doctors and psychologists have proved that. _Science_ has proved that._ Reality_ has proved that."

"Doesn't logic overrule all those things?" Percy asked, crossing his arms.

"That's not helping your case, Percy. If anything, it's helping mine."

"How about trusting your only twin brother?"

That brought me up short. "Percy," I huffed. "That's not fair. I don't want you to think I don't believe _you_... I just... can't believe _this_." I gestured toward the screen door with a grimace.

"So... you believe me?"

"I don't believe in Greek gods, Percy," I stated firmly. "But I do believe this camp could help me. I'm not sure how but I'm not dead yet so that's definitely a plus. Let's just take things _really_ slowly."

He grinned. "Don't worry. No one's forcing you into anything, Leila."

I squared my shoulders and stepped past Percy. "I know, but I am ready for the next part. I want to see the rest of camp."

Percy grinned, "You're going to love it." I nervously chewed on my lip and pushed open the door.

Thinking back, I swear I could vaguely register the screen open again as Percy followed me out, but at that moment, I couldn't actually process anything. I was too stunned.

Percy lightly poked my side. "Believe me now?" he asked.

I was too busy gaping at the ripe, strawberry-filled-fields, pristine basketball courts, fire pits, climbing wall, open-topped marble buildings, and the perfect strip of Long Island Sound to answer him.

Finally, I found my voice. "Where the heck am I?"

Percy just laughed with a huge un-breakable smile. "Leila, welcome to Camp Half-Blood."

* * *

><p>After a few more minutes, I slowly process that this place actually existed and I hadn't died and gone to my perfect definition of Heaven.<p>

"I can't believe this," I repeated for billionth time.

"Do want to see the details of camp or should we just wait here until dinner?" Percy asked. "It's pretty late so we should be eating soon—"

"No way! I won't be able to wait through dinner! Let's go!" I grabbed his arm and pulled him down the steps.

"Gods, Leila," Percy grumbled. "Hold on for second!"

I backed up a little. "What?"

He looked around for minute, as if making sure we were alone before he muttered, "Don't tell anyone about…"

"About what, Percy—the wizard thing, the demigod prank, or the alien invasion problem? You're going to have to be more specific!"

"None of _those_ things!" He told me with a huff. "Well, we probably shouldn't tell anyone the whole alien invasion mind problem either, but I was talking about how I know Mom's not dead."

"Oh," I scoffed, "because you're suddenly _so_ concerned about what people think of you."

Percy rolled his eyes, "I'm choosing to ignore that last comment. Let's just get started already."

"Good," I grumbled. "This is taking you long enough."

He nodded. "Good. We'll start with the arena."

For future reference, never accept Percy's ideas without questions. EVER. Unfortunately, it seems I hadn't learned that ahead yet since I agreed to have suggestion without complaint.

On the way to the arena, Percy pointed out other parts of camp that seemed pretty fun. The volleyball courts, stables, a canoe lake, monster-infested woods, and even a lava-spewing climbing wall in the distance.

"The arena is usually only used for swords fights—the fun kind, of course," Percy explained as we approached the arena, "—and according to Chiron, the occasional counselor meeting or something."

I choked, "Whoa, wait—did you just say _Chiron_? As in—the _centaur_?"

Percy nodded somewhat sheepishly. "The one and only."

"That... isn't as surprising as I thought it would be," I admitted, "but I could just running out of things to be surprised about."

"So, do you want to meet him now or...?"

"Chiron? Um, later. Definitely later."

He laughed, "Gosh, Leila, are you nervous?"

"More like overwhelmed. And the last thing I need is to meet someone I thought was only alive in my Latin textbook."

"I didn't even know you opened that thing!"

I glared. "May I remind you that I did _try_ to study for my final? In order to accomplish this—yes, Percy. I actually opened my textbook."

Percy shook his head. "I don't understand you, Leila. You could be really smart, but you're just too lazy. You either never show up for any finals or don't bother take the midterms or—"

"Hey!" I protested. "I am not _'lazy'_. I just don't care. There are a lot more important things than grades, Percy."

"You could at least do it for Mom."

"Yeah," I muttered. "I guess I could've."

"Don't talk like that," Percy snapped. "Don't act like she's not coming back. _She is._ We just have to figure out—"

"Hey, look!" A howling voice called from behind me. "It's Prissy and his new girlfriend!"

I turned around to see three or four oversized kids a few years older than Percy and I stroll into the arena. By the look on Percy's face, most of them looked already acquainted. "New friends?"

Percy's scowl deepened. "Not exactly..."

"I never would've guessed," I muttered dryly.

The entire group was tall and burly, like they regularly worked out. The brown-haired girl who had called out to us was obviously the leader by the way she sauntered slightly ahead of the group with a tightly gripped spear thrust out in front of her. Some of the other kids also held weapons, but I had a feeling that if it came to a fight, the one's without spears or swords would do just fine.

"Are they allowed to be carrying those things around?" I asked Percy, indicating toward the weapons.

Percy shrugged one shoulder. "One of the things this place is supposed to do is teach demigods how to handle weapons so yeah; I guess it's pretty common for everyone to be carrying some kind of sharp object."

"Hold on," I said, "does that mean we are going to get some kind of sharp object—like a spear or sword?"

He nodded with a grin, "As soon as we know how to use them."

"I love this camp," I said seriously.

The closer the brown-haired girl got, the more I realized how unimpressive she really was. She kept switching her spear hand as if she couldn't find a good grip, then she would stop suddenly and grip it a little too forcefully, signaling both nervousness and overconfidence.

"We're here to settle our business," the girl announced as her friend spread out—flanking her on either sides, slowly surrounding us.

I nearly laughed, "Good gosh. What is this—an old western movie? How about you try using some original insults!"

"I was talking to Jackson," the girl said, glaring at me. "This doesn't concern you."

"Actually, if you came here to meddle with a Jackson—mission accomplished. We're both thoroughly pissed-off," I stated.

"Watch it, Black Beauty," she sneered, taking in my dirty jeans and ratty T-shirt. "You might be next."

I snorted, "Ha—yeah. That was _so_ original."

"Oh, so you think you're so cool, huh?" one of the kids scoffed.

Another kid laughed, "Face it, even if she was cool, hanging out with Prissy here—" the kid gestured to a very angry-looking brother of mine, "—made anything she has—"

"—you mean_ did have_!" some kid added.

"—drop like a satyr in the canoe lake!" the first guy finished causing the whole group to double over in laughter.

I turned to Percy and we both rolled our eyes. This wasn't our first—or last, I was sure—experience with bullies, but frankly, this situation didn't bother me as much as it would've. I guess I was just slightly grateful for something relatively familiar

"Just leave her out of this, Clarisse," Percy told her.

"Aw," she mocked while her cronies howled with laughter. "Someone's got a crush!"

Percy and I glanced at each and shuddered, "Ew."

"Don't be modest!" she cooed, throwing her arms around each of our shoulders and pulling us tight. "You can just _feel_ the _love_."

"Yeah," a new voice said. "I bet there's lots of love between them."

Caught off guard by the newcomer, the grip around me loosened slightly for a moment. An almost invisible nod from Percy told me now was probably our only chance at escape, so at the same time, we ducked straight down. Clarisse stumbled a bit while we rolled off to the side. "Hold them!" she ordered, pointing at us furiously.

Her friends stepped in close, sealing off the only way to our exit. I rolled my eyes at Percy. "You just _had_ to show me the arena first, didn't you?"

Percy smiled somewhat sheepishly. "Not my best idea…"

I huffed, "Since when are any of your ideas good ones?"

"Now, what do you know, Princess?" Clarisse continued, stepping close to the athletic blonde girl.

Even though she was being completely over-towered by Clarisse and her gang, the blonde looked completely at ease. "I was just pointing out you'd have to be pretty stupid not to see that Percy and Leila are related," she continued with an obvious look at Percy and I.

Clarisse whirled around scanning us both up and down. "Twins," I confirmed.

"_Identical_ twins," Percy added with a very smug smile.

"Well, almost identical. There is the whole he's-a-boy-I'm-a-girl situation to worry about, but if you ignore that small detail…" I trailed off.

"Why you little—" Clarisse looked too angry to finish her sentence.

"What's wrong, Clarisse?" Percy asked innocently... a little _too_ innocently. "Been gargling with too much toilet water?"

At that comment, the girl's face flushed bright red. She balled her fists—growling—and took one not-too-graceful swing at us.

Percy ducked while I backed out of reach. Clarisse's big friends stepped in to stop us again, and from there it looked like it was turning into a full-on war.

I guess it was either my ADHD or the concussion that started acting up because the next thing I knew another blonde kid was strolling around the arena like he owned the place. Only this time, the guy was well-armed and ready for a fight.

Immediately, I hated him. I don't who he was or what his deal was, but I hated him. Maybe it was his air of '_I'm so cool I don't even need to act tough_' or maybe it was that perfect picture smile plastered on his smug know-it-all face.

"What do you want, Luke?"

The blond guy—Luke, I assumed just shrugged nonchalantly, "Nothing. I just came here to duel for a bit… anyone interested?" he offered with a dark look at Clarisse and her group of cronies.

Clarisse snorted. "Whatever," she decided. "We're out of here." She and her group carefully backed out of the arena with a only one or two final taunts about how 'this wasn't over'.

As soon as the group disappeared from sight, Percy and I simultaneously let out a long sigh causing us to erupt into a long fit of laughter.

"Nice facial expression," I snickered, poking Percy in the ribs.

He batted my hand away with another laugh. "You're the one that rubbed the fact we're practically identical in her face!"

I smirked. "Oh, come on. The opportunity was just too good to pass up!"

He shook his head. "Self-control, Leila, is definitely_ not_ your strongest quality."

"Ha—this is coming from the boy who punched a kid after he took my place on the soccer team last semester!"

Percy blushed a little. "He deserved that."

I laughed. "If you believe that, Perce, then you deserved your probation-punishment too."

He grinned. "You got your spot back."

"Only because the other kid had to go get his _broken nose _fixed!"

"It was worth it," he decided.

"Whatever," I told him. "I could've earned my spot back just fine without your bloody stunt."

"I'll be right back," Percy told me, rolling his eyes. I watched Percy walk over to talk to Luke, but just as I considered going after him, my path was blocked.

"You must be Percy's sister," the Blondie said, giving me a critical once-over.

"We're twins," I stated. "Technically, I'm not his sister and he's not my brother. We both share an equal part of the day we were born."

"One of you has to be older," she said, "right?"

I sighed, "Okay, _technically _Percy is 3.7 minutes older, but we decided a long time ago not to bring it up. It's not like those small minutes are ever going to matter or something. Now, please tell your name isn't really Princess."

She laughed. "All right, I get it. I won't bring it up. Oh, and my _real_ name is Annabeth."

"Well, Annabeth," I said with a smile. "I owe you one."

"I'll hold you to that," she promised.

"I'd be offended if you didn't," I told her. "Anyways, what was with the sour-faced brunette?"

"That's Clarisse LaRue, head of the Ares cabin so she lives for getting into fights," Annabeth said like this made complete sense. "She's not very easy to get along with."

I shook my head, "I don't know. She seemed like a regular ray of sunshine to me."

"She just kind of has it out for Percy because he soaked her in toilet water," she explained. "She's been going out of her way to come up with special ways to get back at him." She paused and studied my amused smirk. "This isn't new, is it?" she guessed.

"You mean Percy clashing with some oversized bully? No, it isn't. Not at all," I said. "He's sort of… always been that way."

"You're not concerned?"

"Not really. He can handle himself." I shrugged. "Why? Should I be?"

She laughed a little. "You'll fit in great with the Hermes cabin," she told me.

I started, "The _what_ cabin—"

"Don't worry about it," she said. "I'll make sure to explain it all if Percy doesn't, but for now, I've got to go."

"All right," I nodded. "By the way—thanks."

She smiled. "No problem. Clarisse is always a pain. See you at dinner, Leila."

I gave Annabeth one last wave just as Percy walked over with the other boy, Luke. "Hey," Percy said, "where'd Annabeth go?"

I shrugged. "She didn't say."

"Okay, well, Leila, this is Luke," Percy introduced, motioning toward the tall, scarred boy behind him. "He's the counselor for the Hermes cabin—that's where we'll be staying."

Luke gave me an easy smile that made the long scar under his eye reach all the way up to his temple. "Hey, nice to meet you."

Even though he stuck out his hand, I ignored the introduction and kept my hand by my side. I had learned pretty early in life that people with lots of scars (especially ones in potentially painful places like the face) generally do not liked to be messed with, so excuse me for not cuddling up to Luke right away. "What happened to your face?"

Percy shot me a look that clearly said _What is your PROBLEM?_ but Luke didn't appear the least bit fazed. He frowned, but otherwise didn't look bothered by my question.

"Be nice," Percy growled, shoving me slightly.

I sighed and tried my best to smile at Luke. "Sorry," I told him. "Sometimes, I don't really think things through all the way. I have this habit of just blurting out the first things that comes to my head."

Thankfully, Luke laughed, "ADHD?"

I nodded. "Yep."

"No problem. It's totally understandable."

"You too?" I guessed.

"Just ADD. They didn't indulge me completely," he joked.

I laughed, "Lucky you."

"Surprised?"

"A little," I admitted. "You seem pretty easy-going for someone who's supposed to be extremely high-stung."

"It gets easier with age."

"At least that's something to look forward to," I said.

Luke made a_ forget it _gesture with his hands. "Like I said, it's not really a problem. Almost everyone here has an attention disorder."

I couldn't help but think of every school had reassured my mom of the same things:

"_The faculty and staff have been specially trained to deal with such trouble."_

"_Nearly all our students have learning disabilities, and everyone here gets just the right amount of attention to fit their special needs." _

"_We believe in the achievement of everyone!"_

A bell sounded in the distance, cutting our conversation short. "That's the dinner bell," Luke explained before Percy could. "You hungry?"

"How about we meet you there," Percy told him.

Luke nodded. "Cool. Just don't take too long or else Travis and Conner with eat all your food."

"We'll be quick," Percy promised. Luke gave a last one-handed wave and headed off.

"Okay, before we go to dinner, there's something you should probably know," Percy said.

"I knew it," I said. "You _were_ lying. This whole thing is actually some—"

"Not that!" he told me. "We _are _demigods, Leila, and the quicker you come to believe the easier it will be on me."

"Well, gee," I muttered. "Does that mean things are going to get harder for _me_?"

"Probably," Percy admitted, "but that doesn't mean you'll hate it either."

I sighed and put that conversation away for later. "Just tell me whatever it is you originally wanted to tell, okay?"

"It's… um…" He shifted. "Actually, maybe it is better if you find out yourself." Percy led me in the direction of the dinner pavilion.

When we were about twenty feet away, he stopped. "All right, the head table—the one at the front of the pavilion—"

I scanned the long table, "What about it?"

"The director, Mr. D, is in the middle," Percy pointed to a heavyset man with dark, curly hair and a bright Hawaiian shirt.

"Got it," I told him.

"To his left—"

"Oh, my… Holy… is that Mr. Brun-?"

"It's Chiron," Percy told me.

I blinked, "What?"

"Yeah, it's confusing," Percy agreed, "but it does make sense. He's the centaur who's been training heroes-"

"Since the dawn of time," I finished, staring up in wonder at my former Latin teacher. "How did he end up at Yancy?"

Percy shrugged, "He went there to see if we were half-bloods or something."

"Wait," I said. "So he was at a teacher at Yancy because of _us_?"

"Yep."

"Then why did he tell you it was good that we got kicked out?"

"Doesn't really matter, I guess. The point is," he continued, "I think he wanted me to explain things to you instead of someone else because… well, you don't exactly like a lot of people."

"I don't like people in general," I agreed. "I mean, it took me almost an entire semester to warm up to Grover and then I learned he wasn't even human. By the way, what happened to Grover?"

"Right there on the end," he answered, motioning to the head table again.

I shook my head. "I feel like I just walked into the _Twilight Zone_."

Percy laughed, "Come on, you should probably meet everyone."

"I guess so," I said.

"It won't be terrible," he promised, "just a bit annoying."

I sighed, "I'll have to deal with it eventually so I might as well face it now. Besides, I'm starving."

* * *

><p>After a dinner that included some very awkward introductions to the whole camp and a weird sing-along around a mood-changing fire, Percy took me down by the lake so I could have a minute to take it all in. He knew I just needed time to think and breathe without people staring and asking so many questions.<p>

I wasn't exactly sure why he stayed with me. I barely acknowledged him and didn't even try making conversation, but I was glad he waited. As the saying goes, misery loves company. And in my case, the misery would be the complete and utter shock of exactly what my life had become.

"So..." Percy waited, leaning against the dock.

"So what?" I asked, staring at horizon with a blank expression.

"_So,_" Percy repeated, "what do you think?"

"About the camp?"

He huffed. "Pulling out your teeth was easier than this, Leila."

I smirked, "Yeah, but this time you don't get a cool scar."

Almost unconsciously, Percy rubbed a hand over the short pink scar that was slashed across his pinky. "I still can't believe you bit me," he grumbled.

"I still can't believe you had enough guts to stick your hand in my mouth. _Of course,_ I bit you. You were yanking on my tooth saying _'Whoa... that's A LOT of blood...'_"

"Well, it had to be done. You sure weren't going to pull it out anytime soon."

I shook my head, "You're hopeless."

"Whatever. Just tell me what you think of camp."

"It's all right," I decided. "I mean, it looks pretty cool with all the sword lessons for fighting monsters, classes that teach a dead language I'm supposed to magically be able to read, a climbing wall that spews lava for extra challenge, and oh—flying horses! Why not? Let's just add that in there while we're all being completely _psychotic_."

He huffed. "What is your _problem_?"

"_My_ problem?" I repeated. "What's _your_ problem? You keep asking me when it's so obvious what my problem is! A few hours ago, I woke up having no idea where I was or what happened with people I didn't know standing over me claiming they knew exactly _what_ I was and now I can't even have a life! I'm stuck here probably forever!"

Percy quietly stared at me through my whole rant, but by his body language, he was practically screaming at me. His eyes shone with suppressed anger and he was gripping edge of the dock so tight, his knuckles had turned white.

I took a deep breath and reminded myself this wasn't Percy's fault. "Look, I'm sorry, okay? I think it's just... a lot to take in. At least you were there when everything was happened. I mean, first Mrs. Dodds then the fruit stand issue—and don't even start with this whole Minotaur taking Mom who apparently isn't actually dead topic."

His frustration faded slightly. "It's really different, huh?"

"Yeah," I breathed. "For once we're..."

"Not freaks?"

"Oh no," I disagreed. "We are _definitely_ still freaks. I was just going to say we're not the only freaks out there this time."

"How relieving," Percy stated sarcastically.

"I think it's just loyalty thing. It's going to be a while before I actually accept anyone here—besides you—might actually know what all these years have been like. Especially Mr. Brunner—I mean, Chiron—oh, forget it!"

Percy laughed, "Nearly everyone here is awesome. It's not just some fake attitude. You're going to love this place. And Chiron only held back information to keep us safe so we could stay with Mom. Otherwise we would have been hounded with monsters years ago and dragged off to camp. See, Annabeth explained that the more you know about monsters, the stronger your demigod scent becomes and that obviously makes it easier for said monsters to find you."

"Did you just say I smell?" After he had rolled his eyes, I continued, "I was only pointing out someone should have told us. After all these years… after everything that's happened. We deserved an explanation."

"Yes, but telling us apparently would've gotten us killed."

"Well, we almost got killed several times anyway," I pointed out, "so they better not hold anything back anymore."

"That's the thing. Sometimes I get the feeling they're holding back information. Not really in a bad way… just in different ways, you know?"

"If they're not telling us things, then it's bad, Percy."

"You've got to admit it all does kind of make sense now."

I sighed, "All right, maybe it sort of does but that doesn't mean I have to like it."

After a long silence, Percy reached over to bump my shoulder with his. "Hey, are you sure you're okay? You're acting a little… off."

"Honestly, I already told you my problem. Right now, I'm just feeling completely useless. I'm telling you, if I ever pass out again, bury me alive. Gee," I said, lost in thought, "what would you do if I actually disappeared all together?"

"By the way, it's _the_ Minotaur," Percy corrected. "Not just some other random monster." I glared at him.

"You're not helping," I snapped.

"Look, if it makes you feel any better, I passed out on the front porch when I first got here. Besides, you were concussed, Leila," he told me. "You seriously cannot be mad."

"Whatever," I muttered, rubbing my head. "I'm just feeling pretty stupid right now. I can barely walk straight without getting all dizzy!"

"It's going to pass," Percy pointed out. "Look, at least figured out how to turn off the stupid inter-monologue button in our brains."

"Thanks for reminding me," I grumbled. "Now we are officially the freaks among the freakish. Oh my gosh—we're super freaks!"

"Wouldn't being super make us like… important freaks?"

"I don't know, Percy!" I said in exasperation. "Does it matter? One way or another we're still freaks!"

"One among many," he reminded me, standing up. "Come on, you've got to admit this place is a little fun…"

I couldn't stop the laugh that escaped me. "Percy, the only time I've spent here has been filled with being attacked, concussed, and then confused so it might be a little early to ask my opinion."

Somewhere off in the distance, a horn sounded. Percy smiled a little. "Well, it's lights out now so I guess we'll just have to see how tomorrow goes."

* * *

><p><strong>(AN: Wow, I am so bad at updating! But I several awesome bits of news to share!  
><strong>**1. My sister graduated high school! Ahh! [Way to go, baby girl! Love you to death and back!] It was so awesome to see that!  
><strong>**2. I started a blog [link below] personally dedicated to PJO fans and fanfiction lovers! Anyways, when you get a chance PLEASE check that out! [Especially if you read/are reading my other story From the Outside. BIG news concerning that.]  
>Link... completelyshore. blogspot. com [take out spaces]<br>3. ****OH MY GODS! The first chapter of MARK OF ATHENA was posted! Eeeppp! So amazing! Okay, you can find the link to that awesome-ness on my blog!****All right, thanks guys! Until next time…)**

**And a special thanks to...  
><em>Bethy-Boodles, AgentCherry-Garcia212, Percy's favorite sister, GoddessOfNight08, paigemeable, puretorcherismynamecaitlyn, BookWorm77071, Random-Dreaming, K, Guest, Elizabeth0058, ButterflyFlyToMe, <em>and_ spider-_**_**man2012**_**  
>...for reviewing! I totally appreciate every single one of these reviews! It means so much to hear your guys' thoughts!<strong>

* * *

><p><strong>My answer to last chapter's question:<br>**I have been to the hospital twice—once for surgery and once because I sprained my leg.

**This chapter's question:  
><strong>_Have you ever been to summer camp?_


	7. Seven

**Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson or the main story line of this FANfiction.**

**Thank you, **_**AgentCherry-Garcia**_** for Beta-ing this chapter! :)**

* * *

><p><strong>Seven<strong>

Once I was all settled in Cabin Eleven, a few things became clear to me.

The first was that monsters don't actually stay 'dead'. They just kind of leave for while then—most likely when you're least expecting it—they spring back to life, hungry for revenge.

It really comforted me to know any hard work I may put into monster slaying will all come back to haunt me one day.

The second thing was how this whole 'determined, undetermined' mess.

Being told that waiting for your godly parent's sign or signal could sometimes take years, or—in more recent cases—never come at all was pretty infuriated. The only problem was that there was no one to blame at Camp Half-Blood.

Except for Mr. D, but then again, he had claimed his two kids, so maybe not.

When Cabin Eleven explained this to me, it was like they all expected me to start yelling and hitting _them_ because some god might never claim me. Yes, this was frustrating, but it wasn't _their_ fault.

The dad that had abandoned me long before child birth? _Definitely, _his fault.

I still didn't know what to think about the whole "Oh, yeah, that biological father you thought was dead? Nope! All wrong! He's actually a Greek god!" thing. I couldn't wrap my head around the fact that after everything I had been through, I was related to a god.

Unfortunately, the more time I put in to thinking about the whole messed-up situation, I only came to one angry conclusion.

Where was my all-powerful father when my not-actually-that-far-off visions of monsters had the doctors so 'concerned' that they put me on enough medication to kill a full-grown deer? What did my almighty dad do when Gabe got so mad over losing a poker game that he decided Percy and I should spend a couple nights _locked_ _in a closet?_ When did a Greek god help either of us _at all_?

To bring a long story short, I had been through worse situations than discovering you're related to a mythological being, and that realization alone helped me find my answer.

My dad, a great, mysterious Greek god, had done nothing for me in over twelve years.

_On my own,_ Ihad been through worse. I planned to keep going and survive, demigod or not. I haven't needed my dad after all that time, and I certainly didn't want him now.

I might not be completely sure what I believed, but I decided I didn't need to believe anything. I would find things out by myself.

Of course, if Percy wants to tag along with me on my journey to self-awareness, then I'll figure things by myself with Percy tagging along. I mean, let's face the facts; Percy probably wouldn't be much help anyway.

The third was that I could happily agree with Percy on at least one thing. Luke was officially one of the coolest teenagers I had ever met. Somehow he managed to keep both determined and undetermined cabin members in order while remembering everyone's name and making sure they all felt completely welcome and comfortable.

It was, by far, the most impressive thing I have ever seen—at least for some sort of teacher.

In school, there's about been an average of about twenty or so kids in my current grade. I watched teachers struggle to remember kids names for years. Luke not only remembered the names, but also the grades, the ages, what said kid liked to do… it was scary good.

The final thing was that Percy was not letting go of Mom.

"Look," I told Percy while we were eating breakfast the next morning. "I might still be trying to wrap my head around the idea that we're related to a Greek god, but just explain your reasoning to me. What makes you think there's a chance we can get Mom back?"

Percy sighed and set down his half-eaten piece of bacon. "I just keep thinking… If gods and monsters are real, if all this magical stuff is possible, surely there's some way to save her, to bring her back..."

I stole his bacon from across the table. "Now I'm trying not to be negative toward you, so don't take this personally. It's just… that kind of seems like a long shot."

He shrugged. "I guess I'm starting to understand Luke's bitterness and how he seems to resent Hermes so much. I mean—okay, maybe gods have important things to do. But couldn't they call once in a while, or thunder, or _something_? Dionysus can make Diet Coke appear out of thin air! Why can't our dad, whoever he was, make a phone appear?"

"Because that is way too simple," I stated as he continued eating. "Isn't there some way to figure out who our dad is without being claimed—like a test or something?"

"The counselors and Chiron have sort of been 'testing' me, I guess," Percy said. "I've tried a bunch of different activates around camp but so far the only thing I've been really good at is canoeing.

"Probably not what people expected from a kid who killed _the_ Minotaur," I agreed.

"That's what I've been thinking," he muttered around more bacon.

"Get over yourself, Perce," I smirked. "_Before_ your head becomes too big for your shoulders. Besides canoeing, what other things have you tried?"

"Um, I've had Ancient Greek every morning with Annabeth—"

"Can you actually read that mess of letters?"

"Yeah. It's surprisingly easy, Leila. You won't hate it."

I frowned. "Doesn't mean I'll like it either."

"Do you want me to continue or not?"

"Sure, sure. Keep going."

"Okay, I've also tried archery, foot racing, wrestling, and later today, we both have sword lessons."

"And after all that… no one has figured _anything_ out?"

"Not really. I know the senior campers and counselors have been watching me, trying to decide who our dad is, but they aren't having an easy time. I'm not as strong as the Ares kids, or as good at archery as the Apollo kids. I don't have Hephaestus's skill with metalwork or—gods forbid—Dionysus's way with vine plants," he scoffed. "Luke told me I might be a child of Hermes, a kind of jack-of-all-trades, master of none. Right now all I can figure is that we are definitely _not_ related to Apollo."

"Okay," I laughed. "How many people did you take out in archery?"

Percy flushed a little. "I hit Chiron's tail once, but the everyone else just ducked or ran."

"Did I miss anything else?" I teased. "Did you run someone over in foot racing—or just get beat up beyond repair in wrestling?"

"Shut up," he told me. "Clarisse did pin me a few times, but foot racing went fine. Actually, you probably would have been pretty good at foot racing, but I guess that doesn't really help us."

I raised an eyebrow. "It doesn't?"

"We're trying to find out who _our _godly parent is. Not what godly parent we would have if we weren't related," he explained. "We don't need to know what we're good at personally. We have to find things that we're both good at and work from there."

"You've put a lot of thought into this," I commented. "I guess if you turn out to be any good with a sword, I'll have to try it after everyone decides my head is better."

"Still dizzy?" Percy asked.

"Actually, I'm feeling pretty good," I said. "I just think everyone else is going to warm up to the idea of me swinging around something that probably weighs more than I do."

"You look a whole lot better than when you woke up yesterday," he replied.

"Yeah, it amazing what a decent shower can do." I reached up, lightly feeling the scab by above my eye. "I still look like I was hit by train, Percy."

"Well, you weren't. You were only attacked by a dashboard," Percy corrected. "Get it right."

I rolled my eyes, "_So_ sorry."

"You better be," he replied with a grin.

* * *

><p>Just like I thought, Chiron and Luke made the decision—even though I assured them I was completely fine—that I should sit out for another afternoon.<p>

I felt a bit ridiculous just sitting on the bench as the rest of the Hermes cabin partnered up and measured for swords, but there wasn't much I could do. I tried several times in several different ways to convince Chiron or Luke to let me join, but no anvil. I was indefinitely benched.

Luke did make me feel a little better by telling me that I could probably pick up on a lot of tricks while watching, and as I began watching Luke whack Percy to death—I realized how right he was.

I couldn't see an opponent slowing down or losing energy exactly, but I could almost sense their little weak points. It was like being at Camp Half-Blood had opened the strange sixth sense I hadn't known was a good thing.

When Luke finally called for a break, I was wound up pretty tight. Of course with all of his welts and bruises, Percy didn't look much better.

"How are you holding up?" I asked.

Percy rolled a shoulder and winced. "Luke's really good," he admitted, rolling and starching the other shoulder. "I had hoped he would go easy on me, but—"

"That hope looks short-lived," I teased, poking a smallish purpling spot on Percy's arm.

He swatted my hand away. "Would you stop it? That does hurt, you know."

"Level up," I told him. He ignored me and took a long drink from the water cooler.

"Anyway, it's better if Luke pushes you hard, Perce," I commented.

Percy balanced his cup of water on his palm. "Why would turning me into a bruised fruit be helpful?"

"Because this simple exercise just became life and death for us," I said. "If Luke pushes you hard now, it will pay off later."

"You're only saying that because you're sitting out."

"Stop pouting," I stated. "You need to loosen up, Percy."

"You give me a long lecture about life and death, and then tell me to loosen up?"

"Forget it. Boys are useless," I decided.

He sighed and sat down next to me. "No, I think you're right."

"You agree you're useless?"

He scowled. "I meant about loosening up, Leila. At the moment, this isn't life and death." Just as he finished, cold ice water shot down my neck and back, soaking my new orange camp shirt.

I screamed and jumped away from my laughing brother. "Percy Jackson!"

"Aw, loosen up, Leila," he told me with a smirk. "It was a _joke_."

I huffed. "Fine, okay. Ha, yes. It was very funny."

"Exactly," he grinned. "You should practice what you preach."

"I guess I was just a little surprised you wanted to start this," I said, wringing out my wet hair.

Percy's eyes widened. "Start—"

Before he could catch on and duck out of the way, I grabbed an extra cup and dumped it over his head. "That," I stated.

"Leila! I'm soaked!"

"Well, gee," I teased. "I wonder how that feels!"

"I have to continue practice soon!"

I nodded. "And now you're much less sweaty than you were five minutes ago. I figured you needed a minute to _chill out._"

"All right." he blinked. "I kind of asked for that."

"More like demanded it."

"Okay everyone," Luke announced, "circle up! If Percy doesn't mind I'd like to give a little demo."

_Great. Let's all watch Percy get pounded, _Percy thought irritably, grabbing his sword.

I smirked and joined the rest of the Hermes cabin._ Sounds like a fun game to me._

He shot me a scowl from across the arena when my response reached his head. I immediately felt him mentally pull farther away from me as I gave him a one handed Peace-sign with my fingers.

"This is difficult. I've had it used against me," Luke admitted like that made it much harder. "No laughing at Percy, now. Most swordsmen have to work years to master this technique."

"Poor guy," someone behind me said. I turned around to see two boys who looked so much alike they had to be related—and I mean _really_ related, not all that godly parent related stuff.

"Yeah, he's a goner," the other one agreed, shaking his head.

"You might be surprised," I told them, joining the conversation.

"Luke's the best swordsmen in the last three hundred years," the first one told me with no trance of awe or admiration in his voice. "Your brother doesn't stand a chance."

"Want to bet on that?" I asked, smugly. Honestly, I wasn't even completely sure Percy _would_ win. By now, I just loved the little spike of adrenaline you got when betting something only your strange sixth sense recognized as worth it.

"What are we betting?" the boy asked with a sly look toward his brother. "Dessert privileges?"

"How about," I started, chewing on my nail, "if you win, you get my dessert for a week—"

"A week?" the second boy said. "You sure?"

"Connor!" his brother protested. "If she wants to bet a week's worth of desserts, don't question it!" Connor shrugged and motioned for me to continue.

"But _when _I win, I get your beds for a week," I concluded.

"_When?" _the first one repeated. "I believe you mean _if_."

I smirked. "I meant what I said."

"Wait," Connor stopped us. "You want our beds?"

"Yep," I agreed.

"…Why?"

I exhaled in a huff. "Because I'm tired of sleeping on the floor. This way, _when_ I win, Percy and I will both have real beds to use."

"Just for a week?"

"Just one week," I confirmed.

The two of them glanced at my confident appearance then back up to at the sword demonstration. "-and twist," Luke finished, easily pushing the weapon from Percy's grip.

Both of them grinned and held out there hands. "Deal," they said together. I laughed a little and we shook on it.

I turned around and leaned forward as the fight began again; this time, for real. "Ok, Perce," I muttered under my breath, "show them what you've got."

"Now in real time," Luke said, after Percy picked up his sword. "We keep sparring until one of us pulls it off. Ready, Percy?"

My brother nodded and Luke went for him. I held my breath as Percy jumped back out of the way, causing Luke to miss. Just as Luke was about to corner Percy, my brother pulled his own surprise move and quickly lunged forward. Luke recovered and deflected.

Before Percy could jump back, Luke lunged in—but he wasn't quite quick enough. Percy made one long thrust straight into the hilt and pushed Luke's sword right out of his hand.

Percy slowly backed up out of his defensive stance. "Um, sorry."

"_Sorry_?" Luke repeated in shocked. "By the gods, Percy, why are you sorry? Show me that again!" he insisted eagerly.

Percy was reluctant but tried again. There was no contest the second time. Luke disarmed Percy almost immediately.

At the radiating shock, I guess something like this didn't happen a lot. "Beginner's luck?" I called out. Luke glanced at me before staring at Percy some more.

"Maybe," he said. "But I wonder what Percy could do with a balanced sword…"

* * *

><p>Later that afternoon, Luke was standing in the middle of the arena handing me my very own practice blade.<p>

See, Luke had somehow convinced Chiron my head was all right enough now that I had had the morning off, but I knew better. The eager look in his eyes gave him away.

After Percy's impressive display earlier that morning, Luke definitely seemed eager to toss me out there as another example. Of course it wasn't until much later—after Chiron agreed to let me take it slow—that we discovered the problem with that great plan.

"Okay," Luke started after we each had a sword. "You watched the basic sword drills this morning, right?"

I gingerly held the sword out in front of me. It was long and awkward, and as girly as this may seem—not at all my style. "Yeah, sure," I said, holding the sword as far away from my body as possible. "But doing and seeing are two very different things. I still have no clue how to use this thing."

"This is only your first time. No one expects miracles," Luke assured me. "Let's just see how it goes."

"Well then how do—OW!" I cried, dropping the sword and clutching the wrist Luke had smacked with the flat of his blade. "What the heck was that for?"

"Keep your guard up," Luke stated simply, readying his stance again.

"I don't know how!" I protested. "You haven't told me anything!"

"Just pick up your sword and try to defend yourself. Your instincts and relaxes with make up the rest of the puzzle."

I reluctantly picked up the sword, but before I could even stand straight again, Luke whacked me in the side. "Ouch!" I yelled, managing to keep a hold of the sword this time. "Will you _stop_? That isn't helping!"

"You got to be quicker, Leila," he told me. "Your opponent will take advantage of any opportunity that comes so be ready at all times. Don't let the opportunities slip."

"You could be speaking Latin for all I know, Luke. This isn't making any sense to me."

"It will," he promised. "Ready?"

A part of me really wanted to just throw the sword at his head, but I tightened my grip and nodded once.

I was becoming very familiar with the rocks on the arena's floor since for the past—oh, hour or two (give or take a half a minute) that's all I've been seeing.

For the first time in my life, I was extremely glad my feet and limbs couldn't talk because I knew, if they could, they would be screaming at me for abuse. Except at this point, I would've screamed right back.

Percy always warned me my temper was like a bed of hot coals. If someone was really careful, they could tread lightly enough across it and not get burned. But someone that was stupid enough to try and see how long they could stand there and take it would end up with severe damage.

And right now, Luke was playing with fire.

"That was better," Luke said, twirling his blade as I pushed myself off the rocks. "Let's try it again."

"No," I told him, not even bothering to raise my sword. "I'm done."

Of course, he ignored me. But when he came at me this time, I was ready.

Furiously, I threw aside the sword and dropped down under his range. As he fell off balance slightly—expecting to hit something. I 'took advantage of an opportunity' and swung my feet, kicking his legs out from under him. As Luke crumpled, I instantly righted myself, grabbed Luke's sword and then chucked it over next to mine.

"I said I'm done," I repeated. I glared as Luke got up off the ground. "I'm not trying it again."

Luke held up his hands in surrender, but I could sense his underlying frustration. "Fine. I was trying to help, but—fine. You're done, I get it."

"Good," I stated, not relaxing, "because I never want to touch a sword again."

Luke gazed looked back and forth between the weapons and I. "Are you sure you two and Percy are related?"

"Do either of us look adopted to you?" I snapped.

"I wasn't denying the, um, obvious general relation," he said, glancing pointedly at my dark hair and similar features. "But maybe you guys—"

"Maybe we_ what_, Luke?"

"Nothing," he said quickly. "Never mind."

"Forget this," I muttered and turned, storming out of the arena. Wisely, Luke didn't try to stop me.

While I was heading across camp searching for Percy (who seemed to have dropped off the face of the planet), I somehow managed to walk straight into something. As I crashed to the ground for billionth time that afternoon, I cursed Luke and swore to myself I would never pick up a sword again.

"Oh, man," Will said. "Sorry, I didn't mean... Uh, here." Unlike Luke, Will immediately bent down to help me back up. I stated his hand for almost a full minute while he shifted uncomfortably.

"Something wrong?"

"No," I finally answered, taking his hand. "Thanks, I guess."

He grinned. "No problem, but now you owe me a favor."

"You knocked me over," I said as he pulled me up. "I don't owe you anything."

"But I didn't have to help you up—and I did so you owe me."

"No, you knocked me over and then made up for it by helping me up," I corrected. "Now I don't have to hunt you down for later revenge."

Will let out a long breath. "Fine. I guess all cash in a different favor."

"What favor?" I demanded. "I met you like, not even two days ago!"

"I helped you get better while you were in the infirmary," Will stated. "That kind of torture deserves a favor in return."

"Oh please," I scoffed. "That's your _job_! You are an Apollo kid, right?"

"Yes," he hissed. "But technically infirmary duty is a strict volunteer only basis."

"Well, you obviously don't like it there very much so here's some advice for the future: if you don't like helping out there—_don't!_"

"I didn't have much choice this time. Lee came and got me when you and Percy arrived. He said the infirmary was shorthanded and needed more help."

"You still have the chance to say no!"

"He's the head counselor for the Apollo cabin," Will protested. "It wouldn't have looked very good if I had said no."

"Image is everything," I said.

"Whatever. I'm cashing in my favor whether you like it or not."

"Great," I huffed. "Just what I wanted. Another stupid teenage boy who tries to convince me to do obviously stupid things—like drink suspicious liquids or try to skewer someone with a giant bronze toothpick."

Will smirked. "So you didn't like sword lessons, huh?"

"How do you know I had a sword lesson?"

"Word travels fast," he shrugged. "It's a small camp and the Aphrodite girls like to gossip."

"Well shame on you for listening then," I said, moving away from him.

"Wait—" he stepped in front of me again. "You obviously didn't like sword play. So what? A lot of people hear suck at swordplay, but it's only your first day of training. You'll find out what you're good at, and get better with a sword along the way."

"Not to offend you or anything," I started, "but that sounded really cliché."

"That's because it's been used for over a thousand years," Will stated. "Now, since you don't have anything else to do right now, you should come with me to archery practice."

I shook my head. "No way. I'm finished with this stuff."

"Too bad," he said with a smirk. "You're coming anyway. Chiron's already waiting."

* * *

><p><strong>(AN: All right, I know I took forever with this update, and the reasons really don't matter. I'm back at school now and back to updating.)**

**And a special thanks to...  
><strong>_Bookworm77071, Angelfabeth, __Sweetpanda12, Percy's favorite sister, Puretorcherismynamecaitlyn, Random-Dreaming, Guest, ch33tahp4w, and Amandla123  
><em>**...for reviewing! All of you deserve something special for this long wait. I'll have to think of something. Let me know if you have any suggestions! ;)**

* * *

><p><strong>My answer to last chapter's question:<br>**Yeah, I've been going to summer camp for the last seven years, and now that I'm old enough, I'm going to be working there next summer. I can't wait!

**This chapter's question:  
><strong>_Have you ever had a sword/fencing lesson?_


	8. AN: SORRY, BUT PLEASE READ

**Hey guys!**

FIRST: **Happy Holidays!** Merry Christmas everyone! Hope everyone is loving their break! :)

Next, I apologize for the delay in all of my updates.

I do live on the East Coast so **_Sandy_** hit my town **HARD**. A lot of my close friends lost their homes and now that I'm on break from school, I've been helping with clean up so I'm sorry that my fanfiction has been put on the backburner of life right now :(

I just wanted to let you guys know that I have **NOT** stopped writing! I haven't! I actually just sent the **fabulous** _AgentCherry-Garcia212_ my next chapter so I'm sure this will be replaced **soon** with chapter eight.

I **seriously** love you guys! I read **every review**, look at **everyone** who has **favorited** or **followed** this story, and become absolutely **stunned**! All of you are **AMAING** and that got me thinking.

See, I also wanted to announce that I switched my blog to a **Facebook page**. It's so much easier for me to write random stuff using **Facebook r**ather than a blog—and I can post **pictures** on a Facebook page! Anyway, if I actually get enough **activity** on said Facebook page, then I'll start posting pictures to go with each chapter of my stories. Maybe I'll even share my crazy Percy Jackson themed **music ****playlist** with you guys!

Anyway, if you have time, **drop on over**! It doesn't seem like much, but your reviews and comments **DO HELP**. Every single time I get **stuck** on one of my stories, all I have to do is look at past reviews. You have no idea how much writer's block I have cleared because of **YOUR HELP**!

I wanted to give back a little, you know? I wanted to open up a space where **YOU**—the **READER**—can be involved!** And why not Facebook?**

So on this** Facebook page**, I'm going to be** posting pictures** (including ones to an upcoming trip to **New York City**! So exciting!), **recommending** **stories/books** I've been reading, talking about **upcoming story ideas**, sharing some **music choices**, and hopefully **hearing from you** all!

The **Facebook page** has the same name as my old (now retired) blog, **_Completely Shore_.** So now, it's all **up to you**! And don't fret! A **chapter** will replace this author's note :)

Yours truly,

**Kimby Rulez**


	9. Eight

**Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson or the main story line of this FANfiction.**

**Thank you, **_**AgentCherry-Garcia**_** for Beta-ing this chapter! :)**

* * *

><p><strong>Eight<strong>

Will led the way over to the archery fields then immediately grabbed a bow then threw one behind him, obviously expecting me to catch it. I quickly snatched it out of the air and frowned. "You know, you could have just handed it to me like _normal_ human being."

"Technically, neither of us are _normal_ human beings," he explained, not bothering to turn around. "Besides, I wanted to see how good your reflexes were."

I crossed my arms. "And what's the conclusion, Sherlock?"

He glanced at me over his shoulder. "Not bad," he admitted.

I snorted then glanced around. A range of maybe fifteen kids from about nine to twenty years old were standing in lines, firing arrows at targets. Some missed, but most hit their target perfectly.

Okay, next thing you'll next is protection," he explained. "Bows like these snap back fast, usually grazing the inner part of your arm as you release. It'll leave a few good-sized bruises if you don't wear any kind of protection. That's what this is for." He held out a think leather cuff. "Strap up."

I took the cuff and slid over my hand and up my arm under Will's watch. "It needs to be tightened," he said, reaching for my arm. "Here, it clicks into place like this." He tightened the strap so it stayed in place.

"You have tiny arms," he said seriously when he was done. "Are you sure you'll be able to hold the bow?"

Before he had time to step away, I shoved him—hard—and he went stumbling backwards almost falling flat in the grass. "I can take care of myself," I told him.

When we moved over by the targets, Will quickly demonstrated with his bow showing me all the basics techniques I would be using. Effortlessly, he released four arrows in a row all of them managing to hit the direct center of the target. "Got that?" he finally asked.

"Um," I stared at his target for another second before facing him. "No."

I expected him to get upset or start attacking me like Luke did, but he just laughed. "Don't worry," he told me. "You'll start remembering everything when you need it. For now, just see if you do anything; check your strength, aim, and feel for the bow."

I shrugged. _Why not?_ I thought. _This can't be worse than sword lessons with Luke. _Slowly, I raised the bow.

Right away, I noticed my hands were shaking. Whether from leftover anger or from plain old nervousness, I wasn't sure. Either way, I took a deep breath and willed my hands to become steady. After a few beats, they actually cooperated. I aimed slightly up and left, judging the force of the wind and natural gravity. Before I could second guess myself, I released.

My arrow stuck home. Nowhere near the center—but I still hit one the inner target rings.

"Not bad," Will repeated. "I can't believe this is your first time," he muttered, staring at my embedded arrow. "Wait—you're not an Apollo kid, right?"

He looked generally worried, but this time, it was my turn to laugh. "Impossible," I said. "Percy was horrible with a bow! There's no way."

He shook his head. "I don't know. I mean, this is your first time and actually managed to hit the target—"

"Leila is a special case," a familiar voice said. I turned to see Chiron standing behind us. He was in full-on horse mode with his own bow strapped across his back. "She always had… natural skill," he finished with a small smile.

"Well, I won't argue with that," Will stated. "How do you feel about trying it again?"

I was shaking again. I knew I had to get a hold of myself but I was ready to _snap_. "Why? _Why _is this so important to everyone? In the end, it's not going to make a difference whether I'm a Hermes kid or an Apollo kid! Either way I'm still going to be a demigod attacking mega-killer monsters that will forever be a dangerous menace to society—so _who cares_?"

Will snorted. "Oh, it would make a huge difference if you were an Apollo kid."

"It does make a difference," Chiron assured me calmly, completely unfazed by my outburst. "Will, would you mind if I spoke to Leila alone for a minute?"

"Yeah, sure," Will replied reluctantly. He grabbed his bow and a few arrows, and moved on to another target. I stood and watched Will shoot a couple more arrows until Chiron cleared his throat.

"Leila," he started.

"Look," I said, glancing away from Will. "Spare me the explanations about how I 'belong here.' You know the only thing keeping me here is Percy. He's likes it here. He's actually happy here. I'm not about to go running off somewhere without him and I am definitely not cruel enough to demand both of us leave."

He nodded. "Percy has been lucky with family. His mother and you both would support him—but I wouldn't give up on yourself either."

"So you're saying I should just go?" I asked through gritted teeth.

Chiron shook his head. "Of course not. You have a greater chance at survival than most heroes, Leila, but not even you would live very long on your own."

"Chance?" I snorted. "Want to talk about chances? You were our teacher! You were there the entire semester—and _you_ knew the truth! I can't believe you never said anything."

He looked at me reproachfully. "There was much at strake. Anything I said would've risked shattering your ignorance—and more importantly, your safety."

"_Safety?_ Percy almost died twice just in these last couple months—once by that freak Mrs. Dodds and then battling that monster—and you were worried about our _safety?_" Everything was starting to sound like a sick joke; like the world had decided to play a massive practical joke in the form of _my_ life. Nothing was making sense anymore. Pretty soon people would be telling me gravity didn't actually exist and humans flying to moon was possible.

"I am trying to make up for lost time now. In order for this to happen, cooperation—"

"I just spent over an hour having Luke grind me into the dust because of potential he saw in my twin brother—don't talk to me about cooperation!"

Chiron made a few more attempts to talk to me—but after a few minutes of failure—trotted off to help a few nine-year-olds with their bow technique. Thankfully, he did not try to persuade me into trying archery again.

I was about to resume my mission of finding Percy when suddenly the hiss of an arrow rang through the air much closer to me then the others. I turned—and ducked just in time. An arrow shot through empty air exactly where my head had been. It hit the target behind me—dead center.

For a second, I couldn't move. There was a fearful-excited feeling coursing through me like I had gotten off a really high rollercoaster.

"Sorry," Will said, jogging back over. "I missed."

I immediately straightened up. "The only thing you missed was my head. You hit that target perfectly." He shrugged but didn't disagree.

"Show off," I muttered, turning away.

"Wait, where are you going?" Will said, walking alongside me.

It was my turn to shrug. "I don't know. I'm going to go find Percy and figure something out."

He slung his bow over his shoulder. "Cool," he said. "I just need to stop by my cabin first."

"Hold on," I told him. "What are you doing? You can't _come_."

"Don't care," Will stated.

I blinked. "Why would even _want_ to come? I'm only looking for my brother."

"Well," he said, dusting off his hands. "You're pretty much the most interesting thing at camp right now and I've got nothing better to do right now so…"

"Well, gee," I muttered. "Thanks." I wasn't sure whether to be flattered that he wanted to hang out with me or offended that he was using me for entertainment. I mean, he did say I was interesting—but he also said he was nothing better to do.

"So," Will threw me a sideways glance as we started walking back toward the Big House. "How are you doing? You seem to be taking everything pretty good considering you just found out your life has been a complete lie."

_What is with this guy?_ I thought. Couldn't he just leave me alone? "I'm fine," I stated, trying to end the conversation.

"Anyone with eyes can see that," Will agreed. "But anyone actually listening knows you aren't."

"Well you must have a hearing problem because I said _I am fine_." I rubbed the exhaustion from my eyes. "I have to be fine."

"Hmm." He kicked a stone out of the path. "There's a big difference between those two things."

"I'm not interested in the specifics of grammar. It doesn't matter," I told him.

He shrugged. "Maybe it doesn't. Look, my point is, you're one of us now. You're a demigod with rights just like everyone else."

"I'm also a sister with a brother who has issues." I regretted that comment instantly. I shouldn't be saying anything to anyone about Percy, bad or good—and I definitely shouldn't be saying anything to some kid I had just met.

I stopped walking and faced Will. "I don't mean that, okay? Percy's a good brother. I couldn't imagine surviving all this time without him; I'm just… tired, I guess. I'm usually not this pessimistic."

"Hey, you deserve a day to be as moody as you want. Seriously, there isn't anyone here who hasn't gone through what you feel right now," he told me. "But you really do need to give yourself more credit. Chiron's right about at least one thing: you are special."

Unfortunately, it wasn't a compliment. The way he said "special" was the same way someone else would say "dangerous"—slightly in awe but also curious as if he wanted to start pushing me around like Luke did.

I frowned and looked out across the lake. "Sorry if I don't believe you, but look at this from my perspective. Percy and I are twins. We share particularly everything—birthdays, school schedules, height, weight, cramped bedroom space—you name it, we've got it. Me being one-of-a-kind special would only happen if Percy didn't exist." I paused, and smirked at Will. "And if it did come to the choice, I would choose my twin brother every time."

"You love him," Will said. "That's obvious. But I also think he's going to need you a lot more than you need him."

"You're a weirdo," I said, continuing down to the cabins.

"I'm the child of a future-telling Olympian god," he stated, joining my pace. "I know I'm weird."

"So that's your skill, huh?" I said. "Seeing the future?"

Will laughed. "Not even close! Only oracles can tell the future and trust me, you do _not _want to meet an oracle."

I groaned. "Care to explain or am I just going to have to live with another vague answer?"

"There really isn't anything to explain. Oracles just tell you a bunch of cryptic, future-filled garbage that you never understand until much later; usually after the entire event has happened."

I nodded. "All right, so if you don't see the future and you don't like to work in the infirmary—what the heck do you do with yourself?"

"I go home for school sometimes if I get bored enough," he said. "But most of the time I just go to monster classes here at camp or teach archery. Anyway, I stay busy. How about you?"

"My mom and stepdad live in Manhattan," I said. "But I haven't actually lived there year-round since I was little. Percy and I have been attending boarding schools since we were young enough to go. We never lasted more than a year though."

"Typical," he said. "Most demigods give up school around your age because of the monsters. After a few hard years of training, some continue and some don't. It kind of depends on personal preference."

I blinked. "So I could go home—just like that?"

Will shook his head. "It's a bit more complicated. You wouldn't be allowed to leave now because the summer session has started and you have no idea how to defend yourself against an army of monsters. If you improved with a bow or sword and it was the end of the summer or something, sure. You could probably join a traveling circus if you wanted."

I ignored his last comment and thought back to what Luke had said. "Why do I suck at swordplay? " I asked. "I mean, Percy and I are _twins_, and wielding swords came naturally to him. Shouldn't I be good at it?"

"You obviously have a different kind of muscle and strength. more…" Will paused, searching for the right word. "Precision," he decided. "You aim with a bow is definitely better than Percy's. He is an absolute disaster when it comes to archery. You two must just be related to a god with more than one talent."

"We can't _not_ be related, right?" I said. "No matter how different we are?"

He shrugged. "Doubt it. But if I were you, I'd talk to the Pollux and Castor. They're the twins of Dionysius—but be careful. They're a little… moody. Usually, things like that wouldn't matter, but their dad is here at camp so—"

"So if they don't like me, they're make sure Daddy knows it," I finished. "Got it. Thanks for the heads-up, but I definitely want to talk to them."

Will grinned. "I knew you were going to say that. Castor and Pollux are usually hanging out by the edge of the woods. I can take you there."

True to his word, Will took me straight to the twins. Originally, I thought the edge of the monster-infested forest would be a bad place to hang out, but once I was there, everything made sense.

The twins were lounging in vine-woven hammocks right by the edge of the woods where the trees curved out overheard creating a canopy that shielded out harsh light. Soft music drifted through the air giving the entire scene a hazy, drunken feel that obvious had an affect. Both satyrs and nymphs were sprawled out on the ground near hammocks; some just lay there, sleeping or staring at the ground while others danced or sang softly in a language that I didn't recognize as English or Greek.

Once I actually got a look at Castor and Pollux, my expectations dropped a bit.

They were blond, but had no varying shades or sunshine highlights like Will. The two of them had snow colored hair that was a striking contrast to their father's deep almost-purple black. Also, Will was tall and lithe, and seemed to be made for battle; ready for any monster attack at anytime. The twins looked liked they could take down monsters, just not in a battle. Will was all sharp angles, these boys were all rounded edges. Their nose, ears, cheekbones even hands had a slightly angelic delicateness to them.

When we got close to the glen, the music died mid-song. "Figured you stop by eventually," Castor called around his reed pipes.

"Where's your other half?" Pollux added.

"'Am I my brother's keeper?'" I quoted, stopping a reasonable distance away (no need to stand too close to a suspected crazy person).

"Touché," he said, giving an approving nod—whether at my distance or answer, I wasn't sure.

"Well, we certainly don't know where your brother is," Castor continued, "So I believe it's time for us to move on, don't you? What do you want?"

Will's eyes narrowed. "And what makes you think she wants something from you two crazies?"

_So much for being careful._ I rolled my eyes.

"Everyone always wants _something_ eventually," Castor said as his brother continued their weird song on reed pipes.

I decided it was probably best if I finished with these nutcases as soon as possible. "I want to know why Percy and I are so different," I said, cutting off whatever Will was going to say. "I want to know why we don't have the same abilities even though we're twins."

Pollux stopped his song again. "Honestly," he sighed. "You're probably just related to a god with a bunch of talents and domains, like Hermes, instead of someone with a more specific domain like our father."

"Dionysus has specific talents?"

"Talents really depend on the person, you know? Like you and Percy will always have different 'talents,' but with domain, sure. Siblings will usually share something specific." Pollux sat forward eagerly. "Would you like a demonstration?"

"Stop joking around," Will growled, starring daggers at Castor. "You know you're not allowed to do that kind of stuff here."

Castor sighed dramatically. "We wouldn't have demonstrated on her, Will."

"Hey," I cut in. "I just meant that—don't all gods and goddesses have specific talents?"

"Not talents, domains," Pollux corrected. "Since Athena is the goddess of wisdom, her kids will probably be pretty good problem-solvers—"

"Very handy to keep around," Castor said, sitting up out his hammock.

"Ares is the god of war, so his kids will be great at fighting," Pollux continued. "Aphrodite is the goddess of beauty, so she will never have an ugly kid. Those are what the god or goddess is responsible for. That's their domain. It's all about the simple, general stuff like that will never change between siblings."

"Well Percy and I don't have something like that," I muttered miserably.

"Or maybe you just haven't found it yet," Pollux said. "You might be twins, but you are separate people. Don't look at the talent, look for the domain."

"Unless…" Castor raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure you're twins?"

I sighed. "It's not like I ever outright asked my mom, you know? I mean, Percy and I shared a the same birthday and everything, but I never asked."

He shrugged and leaned back. "Maybe you should've."

"You two are nuts," Will stated before grabbing my arm and practically dragging me away.

I dug my heels into the grass to slow him down. "Hey! I wasn't done!"

"Well I've had my daily dose of crazy for today, thank you," he said, still pulling. "If we have to go back let's do it later, okay?"

I tugged my arm from his grip. "Whatever. No one said you had to come."

He never responded. He just stood there, smirking.

By Friday afternoon, I was ready to storm the fortress of Hades. Yesterday after Will and I had gone our separate ways, Percy and I did some serious thinking and realized that it didn't matter if we were actually related.

Percy Jackson was my twin brother, I was his twin sister, and Sally Jackson would always be our mother. Even if it turned out that we were only half-siblings on our mother's side, we would always be family. No amount of Greek madness would change that.

So with these new revelations in mind, we decided to take the next step in our demigod training: climbing.

My heart pounded like a jackhammer as the lava poured down the climbing wall beside me. Somewhere beneath me Percy let out a girlish squeak.

"You okay?" I called down, struggling to keep close to the wall.

"I'm fine," he said, pulling himself up next to me. "Almost lost my left eyebrow, but fine."

I groaned and pulled myself up higher. "Careful!" Grover shouted to us. "Both your reactions were too slow! Climbing is easier if you—"

"Stay close to the wall," Percy and I finished for him.

"Thanks, Grover," I huffed, "but we don't have hooves so just—"

"Stop bothering us every five seconds," Percy growled.

"Ugh," I muttered. "This is torture! I think my arms are going to fall off."

"Push up with your legs then," he responded.

"I'm trying but my feet keep slipping! I can't get a foot hold," I said. "Besides, were almost to the top. I'm not bothering to change my climbing techniques now." I eyed the top of the wall, judging the distance in my head. "I'll meet you at the bottom," I told Percy. "I want to finish this."

Slowly, I stretched up and grabbed the handhold furthest from me. My shoulders screamed in protest as I used only my arms to climb up higher since my legs refused to cooperate. Eleven seconds later, I hit the bell at the top of the wall to signal I was done; twenty-two second after that, I was collapsed in the grass at the bottom of the wall.

"I'll never move again," I told Grover.

He laughed and tossed me a water bottle. "You did good! With more practice, you would actually be really good at climbing!"

I sighed. "Great. More practice."

Once Percy had finished climbing, the three of us took a break. We sat on the pier and just relaxed. It was strange in a normal sort of way. After running from the Minotaur, getting lessons from my part-horse teacher, taking advice from a couple of Olympian-related weirdoes, it actually felt strange to do something normal.

Percy nudged my side as I let my feet hang in the water. "Seem familiar?"

I laughed. "Yancy feels like a million years ago, Percy."

"Yeah, I know," he shook his head. "I can't believe that trip to the museum was only a few months ago."

"And nothing has been the same since," I said. "Except for the fact that I'm still trying to convince you going after Mom is _not _a good idea."

He sighed. "I guess some things never change."

Eventually, Percy leaned back. "Grover, you never told us how your conversation with Mr. D went…"

"What kind of conversation would you have to have with that… See Percy, _this_ would be the perfect place to use one of your insults. Mr. D is an old sot."

Percy laughed. "I don't even know what old sot means."

"It means drunken fool," I told him.

"You should watch what you say, Leila," Grover said, nervously glancing around. "I know you aren't taking all this Greek god stuff seriously, but _they_ do."

I sighed. "I was kidding, Grover! Don't Greek gods have a sense of humor?"

"Oh most of them do," he replied seriously. "But I doubt you would want to be in on their kind of jokes."

I frowned. "What's their idea of a joke?"

He shrugged. "Oh, probably turning you into some small animal that can be hunted down for game or something."

"Anyways!" Percy cut in suddenly. "Grover had to go talk to Mr. D about how we got to camp, but he never said what the final answer was. So how was it?"

"Fine," Grover stated, "just great."

"So your career's still on track?"

"Chiron t-told you I want a searcher's license?" Grover stammered nervously.

"Well…" Percy took a deep breath and let it out slowly before he continued. "No. He just said you had big plans, you know… and that you needed credit for completing a keeper's assignment. So did you get it?"

"Mr. D suspended judgment. He said I hadn't failed or succeeded with either of you yet, so our fates were still tied together. If you got a quest and I went along to protect you, and we all came back alive, then maybe he'd consider the job complete."

Percy shrugged. "Well, that's not so bad, right?"

"Blaa-ha-ha! He might as well have transferred me to stable-cleaning duty. The chances of either of you getting a quest…"

"Hold on," I announced, tapping my hands in the international 'Time Out' sign. "Why doesn't anyone get quests?"

"Luke went on one a few years ago to the Garden of the Hesperides, and the results were, eh… not worth it," Grover finished, shuffling his feet uncomfortably.

"Is that how Luke got his scar?" I asked.

He sighed and nodded once. "It was only a cut when he came back to camp—the Apollo cabin did everything they could, but… it just didn't heal right. Scratches like that—"

"Scratch? Luke's face was _scratched_?"

"It's not important," Grover told me quickly. "It's not supposed to be something people talk about, okay?"

I leaned back as Percy continued. "Luke told me Chiron hasn't allowed any more quests since then, but Annabeth is destined to go on a quest when somebody special came to the camp."

"Chiron heard that prophecy years ago," Grover told us. "No one really knows what it means though. Maybe he just said it to her from bothering him so much. Besides even if you did get a quest, why would you want me along?"

"Of course we'd want you along!" Percy protested immediately.

"As much as I right to admit that Percy's is actually right," I said, trying to lighten Grover's mood. "You're the first goat-friend we would think of."

"Basket weaving… must be nice to have a _useful_ skill," Grover muttered, putting a little too much force behind the word 'useful'.

"All right," I decided, sensing the need for a new subject. "I'm curious about a few other things."

"Oh, no," Grover muttered darkly.

"What's that supposed to mean? All I meant was—"

"Leila, I learn a while ago that curiosity of a Jackson is more deadly than a Hephaestus camper armed with Greek fire," He replied seriously.

"Well, it would help if you could answer some questions for us," I told him. I ignored the panic on Percy's face as Grover turned his back to look me in the eye.

Grover sighed. "I suppose answering your questions is less painful than cleaning up the mess your curiosity will cause later if I said no."

"Glad to know you have so much faith in us," Percy said sarcastically.

Grover's cheeks turned pink. "You know what I mean!"

"Shut up," I told Percy before he could say anything. "Now, why are there four empty cabins?"

"Number eight, the silver one, belongs to Artemis," Grover explained. "She vowed to stay a maiden forever; so, of course, no kids. The cabin is, you know, honorary. If she didn't have one she'd be mad."

"Yeah, okay. But the other three, the ones at the end, are those The Big Three?"

"No. One of them, number two, is Hera's." Grover replied. "That's another honorary thing. She's the goddess of marriage, so she wouldn't go around having affairs with mortals. That's her husband's job. When we say The Big Three we mean the powerful brothers, the sons of Kronos."

"The dude who ate his own kids," I stated, staring at the cabins. "So that mean those cabins belong to Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades."

"Right," he said. "You know. After the battle with the Titians, they took over the world from their dad and drew lots to decide who got what."

"Zeus got the sky, Poseidon the sea, Hades the Underworld," Percy said, nodding.

"Hades sounds like he got a bit cheated," I said. "I mean, I wouldn't exactly be thrilled to be surrounded by dead people all the time either."

Percy shrugged. "At least you'd never get lonely."

I laughed. "That's got to be the one and only advantage, Percy."

"That," Percy declared, "and the fact that you have a massive army of the dead at your disposal."

"Being related to Hades might actually be kind of cool," I muttered.

"But Hades doesn't have a cabin here," Percy stated.

"No," Grover said. "He doesn't have a throne on Olympus, either. He sort of does his own thing down in the Underworld."

"Does his own thing? Or is forced to 'do his own thing'?" I asked pointedly.

"I guess there isn't really a difference around here," Grover said honestly. "It's about rank and importance."

Percy nodded. "And I guess being ruler of the Underworld doesn't exactly score him popularity points."

Grover cracked a smile. "No. It really doesn't."

"Hades the oldest, though. Shouldn't that count toward something?" I asked.

"Yes," Grover answered. "But when every Olympian is thousands of years old, age isn't really something that counts."

"Okay," Percy said. "But Zeus and Poseidon had tons of kids in the myths. Why are their cabins empty?"

Grover quickly glanced around. "About sixty years ago, after World War II, the Big Three agreed they wouldn't sire any more heroes. Their children were just too powerful. They were affecting the course of human events too much, causing too much carnage. World War II, you know, that was basically a fight between the sons of Zeus and Poseidon on one side, and the sons of Hades on the other. The winning side, Zeus and Poseidon, made Hades swear an oath with them: no more affairs with mortal women. They all swore on the River Styx."

Thunder boomed across the sky and I shivered.

"That's the most serious oath you can make," Percy said. "And the brothers kept their word—no kids?"

"Seventeen years ago, Zeus fell off the wagon," Grover stated darkly. "There was this TV starlet with a big fluffy eighties hairdo—he just couldn't help himself. When their child was born, a little girl named Thalia ... well, the River Styx is serious about promises. Zeus himself got off easy because he's immortal, but he brought a terrible fate on his daughter."

"But that isn't fair," Percy protested. "It wasn't the little girl's fault."

"That doesn't matter, Percy," I said. "You'd be surprised who's responsible when you can't blame the guilty."

"But Big Three children aren't always innocent. Children of the Big Three have powers greater than other half-bloods," Grover continued, wringing his hands nervously. "They have a strong aura, a scent that attacks monsters. They _are_ dangerous."

I shook my head. "They aren't intentionally dangerous, though."

"Right," Percy agreed. "So what happened to Thalia?"

"When Hades found out about her, he wasn't too happy about Zeus breaking his oath. Hades let the worst monsters out of Tatarus to torment Thalia. A satyr was assigned to be her keeper but there was nothing he could do. He tried to escort her here with a couple other half-bloods she had befriended. They almost made it. They got all the way to the top of the hill," Grover said, pointing to the pine tree.

"All three Kindly Ones were after them, along with a hoard of hellhounds. They were about to be overrun when Thalia told the satyr to take the other half-bloods to safety while she held off the monsters. She was wounded and tired, and didn't want to live like a hunted animal. The satyr didn't want to leave her but he couldn't change her mind, and he had to protect the others," Grover sighed sadly. "So Thalia made her final stand alone, at the top that hill. As she died, Zeus took pity on her. He turned her into that pine tree. Her spirit still helps protect the boarders of the valley. That's why the hill is still called Half-Blood Hill."

I pulled my legs out of the water, and wrapped my arms around my knees. "How old was she?"

"She was twelve when she died," Grover said. "So she would be almost fifteen by now."

_If I had acted differently would I have been able to save Mom? _Percy wondered.

"Oh, so _now _you think she's gone?" I muttered, scowling at Percy.

Grover's eyes widened. "What?"

"Forget it. It's not important." I replied, tugging on my hoodie. "So Grover, have heroes really gone to the Underworld?"

"Sometimes," he said, giving me a weird look. "Orpheus, Hercules, Houdini."

Percy casually adjusted into a different sitting position. "And have they ever returned someone from the dead?"

"No. Never, Orpheus came close but…"

"But he was the idiot that looked back and lost everything," I finished impatiently. "Anyone else?"

He shrugged one shoulder dejectedly. "Not really. No one has tried anything since…" Grover's eyes suddenly widened. "Wait—you two aren't seriously thinking—"

"Thinking what?" I asked Grover with a relaxed smile. "We're just _curious_, Grover. Now, you said Hades doesn't have a cabin here, but never said why."

"Huh?"

"Why can't Hades have a cabin here?" I repeated, my hands falling to my lap with a SMACK. "So what if he's the lord of the dead? He's still a god, isn't he?"

"Hades doesn't have any kids so… I don't know," Grover shrugged. "I guess there isn't really that much of a need for it."

"You just told us that Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, and Artemis don't have kids, so their cabins are empty," I pointed out.

"Artemis' cabin is used when the Hunters visit," Grover told me, "but yeah, other than that, they're empty. What's your point?"

"My point is you said the cabins were there mostly out of respect," I stated. "Now, why isn't there a cabin for Hades?"

Grover scrunched his nose. "Well, he doesn't exactly _like _demigods."

"I bet Hera doesn't either, considering she's the goddess of marriage and commitment," I said. "But she has a cabin."

He gaped at me. "She's the queen of Olympus! She'd start wiping us all out one by one if we took down her cabin!"

I smirked. "Ever think that maybe that's why Hades hates demigods so much, too? And I never said anything about taking down someone's cabin. I'm only talking about adding one cabin. And then maybe an extra one for undetermined kids since the Hermes cabin is beyond full."

"That's not a bad idea," Percy agreed.

Grover face had become as pale as a sheet. "You guys can't be serious! I mean, this is—"

"Calm down, G-man!" Percy said, punching Grover in the arm.

"Yeah," I shrugged. "We're just talking. Nothing _completely_ serious."

"So," Percy started, changing the subject, "a satyr is always assigned to guard a demigod?"

Grover's eyes had gone so narrow, I thought they would be permanently stuck that way. "Not always," he answered slowly. "We go undercover to a lot of schools. We try to sniff out the half-bloods who have the makings of great heroes. If we find one with a very strong aura, like a child of the Big Three, we alert Chiron. He tries to keep an eye on them, since they could cause really huge problems."

"And you found us Chiron said you thought we might be something special."

"I didn't... Oh, listen, don't think like that," Grover told him. "If you _were_—you know—you'd never _ever _be allowed a quest, and I'd never get my license. You're probably a child of Hermes. Or maybe even one of the minor gods, like Nemesis, the god of revenge. Don't worry, okay?"

I smirked. "Yeah, I'm sure those gods would _love _to hear you talk about how unimportant they are."

Grover stomped one hoof. "That's _not _what I meant!"

"It's okay, Grover. We won't tell on you," I teased as Percy laughed.

* * *

><p><strong>(AN: Thanks everyone for the understanding about Sandy! Things were a bit on the fritz for a while, but things are looking really, really good right now! Most of my friends have moved back into their homes and the coastal towns in my area are almost all cleaned up! I'll talk to you all soon, I'm sure. Anyone else completely excited for Capture the Flag?!)**

**And a special thanks to...  
><strong>_The Helios Spirit, Ch33tahp4w, The Animorph Demigod Bird Kid, Poseidon's Daughter-Percy's Sis, Percy's Favorite Sister, Penguinstar, Sweet Panda12, Bookworm77071, Angelfabeth, __Crazier Than Your Mind, Artemis and Orion, Percy Jackson the DragonBorn, Mela1912, Artemis and Orion, Percy Jackson the Dragonborn, .Enemy.172, Fernlight, Silver Demon Sword, Furry Marshmallows, Fireman 12468, Sherlock's Guardian Angel, Rainbowdash 12345, and 101 Popcorn.  
><em>**...for reviewing! You guys are seriously amazing!)**

* * *

><p><strong>My answer to last chapter's question:<br>**Sadly, I have never taken a sword lesson. I've taken a few kickboxing classes and discovered I'm not horrible at hand-to-hand combat, but nope! Never had a sword lesson—and I'm totally jealous so many of you have! It sounds FUN!

**This chapter's question:  
><strong>_Do you think Hades should've had a cabin at Camp Half-Blood?_

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><p><strong>Facebook Page: <strong>_**Completely Shore**_


	10. Nine

**Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson or the main story line of this FANfiction.  
><strong>**Thank you, _banannibo_** **for Beta-ing this chapter! :)**

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><p><strong>Nine<strong>

If someone asked me what I had for dinner that fateful Friday afternoon, I wouldn't be able to answer. All I really remember about dinner was being so excited for capture the flag that my leg literally wouldn't stop moving. I also remember Percy throwing things at me while telling me to stop, Luke laughing at us, Travis and Connor complaining about their recently acquired sleeping arrangements, and finally, Chiron announcing that it was time for capture the flag.

I knew Perce had been excited—even if he had tried to hide it. He had told me about the bathroom incident that led to Annabeth wanting him on her capture the flag team. Of course, I had properly gaped at him when he told me about how he—in his words, not mine—"had become one with the plumbing".

Once the teams were announced—Athena, Hermes and Apollo versus Ares, Demeter, Dionysus, Aphrodite and Hephaestus—and the flags of been brought forward, armor appeared on the tables.

"Heroes!" Chiron announced. "You know the rules. The creek is the boundary line. The entire forest is fair game. All magic items are allowed. The banner must be prominently displayed, and have no more than two guards. Prisoners may be disarmed, but may not be bound or gagged. No killing or maiming is allowed. I will serve as referee and battlefield medic. Arm yourselves!"

"So we're really supposed to use these?" Percy asked Luke, gesturing to the piles of spears, swords, and others weapons.

"Unless you want to get skewered by your friends in cabin five. Here—" Luke said, handing each of us some armor. "Chiron thought these would fit. You two will be on border patrol."

I groaned and nearly dropped the shield Luke gave me. "This camp is the most backwards place I have ever been," I said. "It's like everything I've ever learned in life just gets thrown out the window! I mean, it's like '_Don't run with scissors! But don't worry, it is not dangerous—it's just a waste of time! Here! Have a three-foot long sword to swing around instead!'_Good grief!"

Percy laughed and stuck an over-sized helmet on my head.

"Don't worry about the sword thing. Chiron mentioned that you're not horrible with a bow, so I made sure to grab you one from the weapon's shed earlier," Luke explained while I scowled at Percy and pulled the helmet off.

I set the helmet aside and took the weapon from Luke. "A bow? I mean, it's better than a sword, but I don't really have a lot of experience shooting one of these things."

Luke strapped a shield to Percy's arm. "It's either a bow or a sword. Take your pick."

"I'll take the bow," I told him, grabbing a cuff to protect my arm and strapping into place.

Luke smirked. "Figured you'd say that."

Annabeth stood up on one of the tables to get our attention. "Blue team," she shouted, "forward!" More yelling and cheering rose up as everyone started marching.

"Come on." Percy tugged on my arm. "I want to catch up with Annabeth."

Travis and Conner appeared on either side of us. "It's alright, Percy," Conner told him, patting the arm Percy was pulling on. "We'll stick with Leila."

"Yeah," Travis agreed. "We'll make sure she doesn't get into too much trouble."

I glanced at the Stolls and the crazy I-might-just-spaz-out-and-attack-my-own-team-at-any-time grins they were wearing. If anyone was going to get in trouble, it would definitely be me. Conner and Travis seemed practically _breathed_ trouble.

But maybe that's why they were my friends. "Go on and find Annabeth," I said to Percy. "I'll be fine."

Percy saluted us with a smirk. He totally knew how nuts Travis and Conner were. "See you during the game."

As soon as Percy went ahead to find Annabeth, the brothers linked their arms through mine and fell eerily quiet. We were all walking into the woods by now. The team started to split up and cover all the different positions. Several Apollo and Hermes kids crouched down and waited near the boarder. Will wasn't with them, though. "All right, Silence is dangerous with you two around," I muttered, watching the Stolls swing their swords with ease. "What are you planning?"

"I knew I liked her," Travis said proudly.

Conner snorted. "Like I disagreed? _Please_."

"Now," he continued, unhooking his arm and pushing us deeper into the woods, "_RUN!_ Hurry—before someone sees us!"

Travis kept his arm linked with mine—most likely ready to pull me along if I resisted—but I sped up. Conner ran a few feet ahead of Travis and I. He stopped or ducked behind a tree every now and then. When I finally asked what Conner was doing, he told me he was making checking for the other team's scouts.

Travis unlinked his arm from mine. "I think he just likes pretending he's part of the Russian mob," he muttered.

Since we were trying hard to be stealthy, I swear I tried not to laugh—but Conner must have overheard his brother. Quite suddenly, he dropped to the ground and did an elaborate tuck-and-roll spy move across the wooded trail ending by leaning against a tree while holding up his sword like a gun. "Actually, Brother," he said in a very bad British accent, "it is Bond. _James_ Bond."

Travis and I looked at each other and then completely lost it. The three of us were laughing so hard we practically fell over each over while running.

A long, loud horn sounded in the distance. We all quickly fell quiet again. "Let the games begin," Conner said in his maybe-British-probably-demented-Australian accent.

"You know," I said once our second round of laughter had finished. "Luke told me I was on boarder patrol. He said I should go left and stand at the boarder."

"You have to understand something, Leila," Travis started stopping to set his sword and helmet aside. "Luke says a lot of things."

"Most of them are good too," Conner agreed, doing the same as his brother. "Like what armor to wear and what post to take during capture the flag—but you just have to know which comments you're actually supposed to listen to."

"Or what _part _of the comment you're supposed to listen to," Travis added while he and Conner unclipped their breastplate straps. "It's all perspective really."

Conner nodded, carefully collecting up the helmets, shields, and breastplates. "Exactly. I mean, technically, you're still going left—you're just going a little farther to the left than Luke originally planned."

"Uh-huh." I crossed my arms, watching them dump the armor in the bushes. "But that doesn't explain why you took off all your armor."

"Have you ever tried sneaking around with twenty extra pounds of metal?" Conner said. "Trust me, I'm speaking from experience when I say it gets you caught_—fast._"

"We're just making things a little easier," Travis said, taking my helmet and bow. Conner unclipped the breastplate straps and helped me remove it without dropping my quiver.

I strung my quiver back over my shoulder. "You both are horrible friends."

"But we _are_ your friends," Conner reminded me, putting my armor with the rest.

Travis tossed me my bow. "It's settled then," he stated. "Let's go!"

"Where are we going?" I asked, giving up my argument. It was probably too late to be arguing my case anyway. After all, I should've figured the moment they appeared I was going to be an accomplice of something that was probably completely illegal.

"We're going to get the flag," Conner said proudly, raising his sword.

I blinked. "And we're going to single-handedly charge the Ares cabin, get the flag, and run to victory… with_-out _armor?"

"Duh," Travis stated while leaning a bit to the side to avoid being whacked by Conner's sword.

"Sounds legit," I said, pushing Conner's arm out of our way.

They smirked. "Get ready for a lot more running," Travis said.

"And an epic fight," Conner added, hopping on a fallen tree that was stuck diagonally across the trail. The tree must have been tall—and also gotten stuck on something when it fell since it wasn't even sitting on the ground. Coming up to it, the fallen log was shoulder-height making it climbable, but still annoying.

"Correct me if I'm wrong—but don't we cross the border first?" I suggested, climbing up over the log.

"Yep," Travis agreed, propping his elbows on the fallen tree while I leaned on it from the other side.

I looked up at Conner who was doing a couple weird yoga poses up on the tree, and then at Travis who was smirking like a weasel. "Okay…" I said slowly. "What am I missing?"

Travis laughed and backed up a few steps away from the log. "You're going to want to back up," he said, motioning me to the side with his hand and sheathed his sword. He crouched slightly and then took off running straight at the log, gaining momentum before launching himself completely over it.

"Come on, Conner," Travis said casually, as if he hadn't just ninja-catapulted-himself over a tree. "Get down. You might be spotted."

"Crossing the boarder," I repeated. "What are we going to do about it?"

Conner jumped down, joining his brother and I on the ground. "We're done with that," he said, dusting off his hands.

"This dead tree marks the boarder," I guessed as Travis and Conner nodded and high-fived each other. "I thought the creek was the boundary line."

Travis threw an arm casually over my shoulder. "Leila," he said, "look down."

I stepped away from Travis and glanced under the fallen tree. Sure enough, the creek was there. Actually, I was surprised I hadn't heard all the gurgling noises the creek was making. "That was… strangely easy," I said, glancing around for enemy patrols.

"Hey! Don't complain," Travis told me. "We're over the line, aren't we?"

"Yeah!" Conner agreed. "And we have all our limbs in tact!"

"We know what we're doing!" Travis bragged.

I raised an eyebrow. "Since you have everything figured out, what's your plan from here?"

Conner and Travis looked at each other then shrugged simultaneously. "We don't know," Conner said. "We usually just kind of wing it, you know? Like, either we'll get the flag or get caught so it doesn't really matter."

"I say you're leaning toward the second option." A voice said from behind us.

The three of us whirled around and came face-to-face with a very tall, very buff, very armed Hephaestus camper. His sword was pointed straight at us, ready to strike if we moved.

"Beckendorf!" Travis said with way too much enthusiasm. "Fancy meeting you here!"

"We've been looking everywhere for you!" Conner joined in, clapping a few times. "How _are _you doing?"

"No way," Beckendorf growled, raising his sword higher. "Not this time. You guys are caught. End of story. No tricks."

I glared at the Stolls realizing I was probably going to spend my first Camp Half-Blood capture the flag game in jail. "This is the last time I ever follow one of your plans."

"But we got it from here!" Travis replied proudly.

"Yeah," Conner said with a grin.

Faster than I thought was possible, they each drew their swords and ducked as Beckendorf lunged forward at them. I swung my bow over shoulder and ran after Travis and Conner with Beckendorf following close behind, now shouting for help. Thankfully, all of us were pretty fast runners.

_"This was your plan?!"_ I hissed.

"Winging it, remember?" Conner called back.

Travis said, "Besides, you think we planned this? We're just going with whatever comes our way!"

"And this is going better than usual!" Conner said.

"There!" I shouted as we came up to a large holly bush.

"Hide!" Travis, Conner, and I said together, diving into the underbrush. We army crawled into the large bushes and once we were far enough off the trail, sat up and looked around.

The woods cleared up in front of us, creating a bright glen with a lot of open space. "There's some guards," Conner said, pointing at some fully armed red team members wandering around.

"The flag must be close," Travis muttered.

"It's hanging in that tree," I said, pointing up.

Travis cursed as Conner rocked back on his heels. "Well, this sucks," Travis stated.

"What?" I said. "Why?"

"Look, we're good at climbing," he told me. "But we're not exactly _fast_ at climbing which means that someone might have a chance to catch us."

"So we're screwed?"

"Maybe not… Leila," Conner said with a sly look. "You were pretty good at the climbing wall yesterday."

I shrugged. "So what? That was a _climbing wall_. As in, meant-to-be-easy-to-climb type of wall. I grew up in New York City! I didn't exactly spend a lot of time climbing trees!" The closest thing to climbing trees was playing hide-from-Percy in central park when I six. I didn't think that really counted as experience.

"It's easy! The branches are perfectly spaced! You can do it," Travis told me, nudging me in the side for good measure.

"Oh, but you're going to want to watch out for angry nymphs," Conner advised.

"Definitely watch out for those," his brother said nodding. "And the Ares cabin."

"They'll be angry, too. And Beckendorf is a great guy, but also really competitive so be careful when it comes to him."

"And some of the Demeter cabin will probably be hiding in the tree so try be silent while climbing."

"Avoid angry nymphs, emotionally unstable Ares campers, Beckendorf and his sword, and any campers hiding in the tree—Demeter or not," I rattled off. "Like you said, we'll either get caught or we won't. Now, here's what we're going to do: you guys run straight out from here and just cause complete chaos, alright? I'll go back the way we came and climb the tree from behind, grab the flag, and then once I have it, we all run like we've got all of Hades chasing us."

They both stared at me then turned to each other and said, "She's got this."

"Let's do this," I said.

* * *

><p>Everything was set. Our plan was actually working. Travis and Conner were able to sneak around and cause enough noise to send some of the guards running. While the Stolls took care of that problem, I went after the flag.<p>

Turns out, I was actually pretty good at playing capture the flag. Silently and unseen, I managed to run around and hide behind another bush near the tree that had the flag in it. I crouched down and peeked out, watching for the distraction I would definitely need. The tree with the flag in it was only few yards to ahead of me. As soon as Travis and Conner distracted the guards, I was going to make a run for it.

At the last second, I sensed it. Someone was _right behind_ _me_. And when I say, "right behind" I mean breathing-down-my-neck close.

"You know, if I was on the other team, you would totally be caught right now," a familiar voice muttered.

I let out a long breath I hadn't realized I was holding. "Will," I growled, not bothering to turn around. "What is your problem? You could've gotten us caught!"

"Sorry," Will told me, not sounding very sorry at all, "but you should be more careful if you don't want to get caught. Try looking around for a little bit after you hide."

Why wouldn't this kid leave me alone? It's not like I encouraged him or was nice or something. _I'm sure there are a lot of much nicer girls to stalk, _I thought. _So go away!_ "Try going away and never coming back," I snapped.

_I am NOT stalking you—and trust me, if I could, I would definitely leave!_

"Oh, please! This is totally stalking!"

"Quiet!" he said, elbowing me sharply in the side. "You're getting too loud! They're going to hear you!"

Even though I didn't like taking orders from people, I did lower my voice. Sadly, Will was right this time. We would be caught and the plan would be ruined if we got any louder. "You're the one who was practically yelling at me," I told him.

"Um, you started yelling at yourself," Will corrected, crouching down next to me. "Something about stalking… yeah, I think you're nuts."

It took me a minute to understand what happened. _Percy,_ I thought, realizing that I must seem uttering insane to Will._What are you doing? I can't have you distracting me right now!_

_Sorry, thought I'd just pop on over and chat for a while, _he thought back sarcastically. _You are not the one who needs to concentrate right now, Leila!_

I rolled my eyes and almost mentally pulled myself away from Percy—I hadn't even noticed that our mental connection was working—but something on his side turned sharply_painful_.

The pain was radiating. It shocked me hard. My arms and chest went numb. I tried not to fall over, but I just ended up banging against Will. I tried to smother my cry of pain so we wouldn't get caught, but Will heard it. "What's wrong?" he said immediately grabbing my arm to keep me upright.

"It feels like—," I managed to mutter through my clenched teeth. "I mean—I think I just got electrocuted."

"Electrocuted?" Will repeated. "Leila, we're out in the middle of the woods. How the heck did you just get _electrocuted_?"

"I don't know," I said, sitting fully down on the ground, "but I think—_ouch!_"

I hadn't noticed it at first, but when I tried to pull away from Will, I felt it. On my arm was one long, fresh cut running along my arm. And it was bleeding. A lot. Will mouth dropped open. "When did _that _happen?" he said, staring at the cut. "There isn't even anything that sharp around here!"

I clamped my hand on my arm. "I've got to find Percy," I said. "This is bad. This is _so_ bad."

Will started. "What are you—?"

"Quiet," I told him. _Percy, what's going on? Why do I feel like I just got my teeth shocked out my mouth?!_

His response didn't come right away. It was a bit slow, like he wasn't really concentrating on me. _I'm at the boundary line. The Ares cabin ambushed me. Clarisse has an electric spear._

Everything in me bristled. That cabin would not live to see the light of another day. Maybe I seem a bit overly protective—but this wasn't just my twin brother they were attacking, it was my best friend. _Where are you? _I demanded, getting ready to turn around and go after them.

_Don't worry about it! I actually think I've got this. Just end the game if you're going to—and quick!_

I wanted to push it, but I was probably too far away to really help him anyway. I sighed and didn't bother asking him how he knew I went after the flag. He was Percy. Sometimes, he was perceptive than he seemed. _Consider the game over,_ I told him.

"What exactly are you planning to do from here?" Will said, breaking the silence.

I notched an arrow. "I was waiting for a distraction—Travis and Conner said they would take of it—but it looks like I'm going to be making my own."

"_Travis and Conner?_ Oh, yeah," Will snorted. "They make perfect distractions. Wait—what do you mean make your own—?" Without bothering to stand up, I fired an arrow in a completely random direction. A few Aphrodite girls screamed. I guess I almost hit someone. Oops.

Will blinked. "What was that supposed to do?"

"Someone fired from over there!" one of the girls shouted, pointing in the wrong direction. "I know! I saw them!"

"We're over he-re!" Travis suddenly shouted in a singsong voice from one side of the glen.

"No, no! Over here!" Conner called from the other.

"No, wait! _Here!_" Travis said from a completely new direction.

"Someone shut them up!" a boy screamed, covering his ears and falling to ground in misery. "My head can't take this much longer!"

"I've still got headaches from last time—stop them!" another camper said, frantically—and uselessly—throwing his spear at the bush closest to him.

"Glad they're on our side this time," Will muttered, shaking his head. "They sure cause panic."

"How do they do that?" I wondered for a second as Travis and Conner's voices started piping up from several directions at once.

"I don't know," Will said. "We all have talents, and I guess theirs is—_hey!_ What are you doing now?"

I had moved away from our hiding spot behind the bush and started to pull myself up into the tree. Everyone was fully distracted by Travis and Conner. No one would actually see me go up into a tree. "Getting the flag," I told him. "What does it look like I'm doing?"

"You know the flag is," –Will pointed to a pine to the left— "over there, right?"

Even though he had probably been going to camp a lot longer than I had, I was still a little impressed. He _did_ know where the flag was—but how he missed all the armed campers standing around ready to ambush any close enemy, I'm not sure.

Even with the distraction the Stoll brothers were causing, I doubt anyone could miss seeing me climb into their flag tree. I raised an eyebrow at Will. "You know that tree has no climbing branches and is surrounded by guards, right?"

He walked over toward me, swinging his bow over his shoulder. "Here," he said, linking his fingers together and holding them close to the tree. "Step in my hand and I can give you a extra step up into the tree."

"I can do it myself," I told him, but accepted his help anyway. If Percy needed this game to end, I didn't have time to worry about my pride. I stepped up into his hand and grabbed the branch closest to my head.

Will stood taller, giving me all the extra help he could. "I think you'll survive," he said.

By the time I was standing at the top of the tree, all the campers looked thoroughly confused. A few of them were still running in circles trying to catch Travis and Conner, but most of them were just turning in place when one would call out. No one could pinpoint where the two of them were.

I bit back a laugh as Conner army crawled out from behind a tree. Quick as lightning, he chucked a pinecone at one of the campers who had been facing away from him, then turned and fled back onto the bushes. "That idiot only wants your attention!" Travis told them, as the camper who had been hit cried out in pain. "Ignore him and come find me!"

"Just go after them one at time!" an older camper instructed. "There are only two of them!"

My eyes narrowed. _Time to add more to the Chaos,_ I decided.

Once I spotted the perfect branch, I wiggled it back and forth to break it loose. As soon as it broke, I re-balanced myself and pulled my ponytail out. Carefully, I wrapped my hairband around the edges of stick, creating a makeshift slingshot. Next, I grabbed a pinecone.

There wasn't a moment to spare. "I got him!" a camper on the right side of the glen called. "I got, um—well, I got one of them!"

"I'm Travis, you idiot!" Conner told him, fending off the boy's sword attack. "Can't you tell the difference between me and my brother?"

I aimed for his head. I probably should've aimed somewhere safer, but in all fairness, I totally thought I would miss. Well, I didn't.

The pinecone zipped through the air faster than I thought it would go and hit the boy who had been attacking Conner with a _THUNK_! My mouth dropped open as the boy crumpled to the ground, most likely unconscious. It was hard to tell from up in the tree.

Before anyone could realize where that pinecone had come from, the real Travis ran out into the middle of the glen and started chucking pinecones at any campers who looked his way. A couple of Hephaestus kids got pretty close to Travis, but arrows whizzed passed them, making the campers jump back. Will must have been hiding somehow in the trees too.

Conner took the opportunity to dive back into the bushes. Travis followed him back into the bushes a few seconds later. "You want _more?_" Travis shouted as Conner called out, "Try again!"

Those poor campers. We were driving them mad. It was time to end this.

Once I was actually standing on the end of the branch, I had second thoughts. If I jumped and missed the branch leading onto the other tree with the flag in it, I would fall to my death—or at the very least, I would fall to my coma._Too late,_ I thought with a mental shrug. Before I could change my mind again, I stepped forward one last time and leaped for the other tree.

I only felt that actual leap of weightless energy for a about a second. I crashed into the tree trunk unharmed—making a few squirrels running away in terror—only a few second later, and quickly steadied myself before I could fall back out the tree.

When I was finally steady enough to look around, I didn't see anyone in the tree with me. Maybe they had all gotten gone to help their team find Travis and Conner, or maybe I just really bad at spotting hidden guards.

Either way, I was going to get the flag. Now that I was closer, I could see that the flag repulsive burgundy color with a picture of a blooded spear and pig head on it. The entire thing looked tattered, worn out, and nasty. Just like the Ares cabin. A good climber had obviously stuck the flag up here because it was literally hanging out on a limb. It was waving around in the breeze so I was going to have trouble grabbing it without falling out of the tree.

Slowly, I gently began climbing further out, inching along trying not to make noise.

As soon as I was as far out as I could go without breaking the branch, I tried to get the flag. It was still out of reach, but I couldn't go out any further. The branch would break and I would tragically die at age twelve in a pine tree playing capture the flag. Yeah, that would make a great obituary.

Taking a chance, I stretched up standing up on one foot while using the other to brace my weight on a different branch. It was weird triangle sort of position, but it worked—until I lost my balance.

Reflectively, I stepped forward with one foot to catch myself.

_CRACK._

Whoops.

The branch I had been standing on started to break so without really realizing what I was doing, I threw my weight onto the other side and used the force to leap up and grab the branch above me. The same one the flag was hanging on.

It was almost too easy to get the flag now. Hanging on with one hand, I reached over and unhooked the end of the flag from around the tree. Like I said,_ easy_.

"Look," a boy on the ground shouted. "Up there in the tree! She's got the flag!"

I glanced down and saw that some of the campers had stopped chasing the Stolls. Most of them were staring at me, and few of them were yelling and pointing to get everyone's attention.

"Stop her!"

"Get her—hurry!"

"Back off!" I shouted down, attempting to sound more dignified and less I-could-fall-to-my-death-at-any-second terrified. A couple of campers had reached the bottom of the tree by now. The rest were crowding around talking and rapidly gesturing at me dangling from the tree branch. "I'm warning you! Get away!"

The campers ignored me so I decided to make my point a little more clear. I swung one of my feet so hard forward, one my sneakers went flying off the end of my foot. It hit one the campers and she yelped, "HEY!"

"You were warned!" I told them, loosening my other shoe. Wisely, they backed up. None of them were standing underneath me.

My arms were starting to burn. I wouldn't be able to hold on much longer. I needed to figure out a way to climb down.

A few campers were still yelling things like, "Someone needs to get up there!" A few others were still fending off Travis, Conner, and Will. People were starting to climb up the tree. I blocked out the shouts and tried to focus only on the tree.

This is why they had the flag in the tree. Any of guards—whether they standing at the bottom of the tree or not—would be able to see someone trying to get the flag. Once they saw the person stealing the flag, they were trapped! They wouldn't be able to get down out of the tree without being caught, and the tree was too high to jump.

I was cornered.

My only choice would be to jump straight out of the fifty-foot tree. Silently hoping I didn't break my ankles—or any other bone in my body—when I actually hit the ground, I let go of the branch and let myself drop out the tree.

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><p><strong>Facebook Page: <strong>_**Completely Shore**_


	11. Ten

**Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson or the main story line of this FANfiction.**

**Thanks to ****bananaibo for Beta-ing! :)**

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><p><strong>Ten<strong>

The ground was actually a lot closer than it looked.

That sentence could be interpreted to you as good or bad. For me? It was_ bad_.

Because when I finally hit the ground, I hit it HARD. My feet literally slammed onto the ground, but thankfully, I knew enough about jumping off of things to know to bend your knees when you land. It absorbs the shock or something, and keeps you from breaking your ankles.

Unfortunately, it didn't stop actual force of hitting the ground. Sometime during the fall, my other sneaker had come off. I was bare-foot and my feet physically burned on the dirt. The shock of the fall had almost brought me to my knees, but with effort, I managed to stay upright. For a few seconds, I couldn't actually move from fear that I would walk away and leave my feet behind.

I had crash-landed so hard that around ground around me was actually cracked. It was shaking from the force of my fall. The campers that had gathered around the base of the tree took a few steps back. The flag was still clutched in my fist, but I risk moving anything. If something was broken, I was only to make it worse.

Except, my feet was the only place I could feel pain. Nothing else hurt. As a test, I held my breath and then took two quick steps back. _No pain,_ I realized.

Just as the campers around me starting pointing their weapons at me, shouts rose up from the forest. All of a sudden, blue-teamed campers poured into the glen, fighting with everything they had. Everyone started yelling, running, and fighting—and not necessarily in that order.

A couple of enemy campers ran at me, but I ran straight toward them, taking them by surprise. Most of them jumped away or slashed at me with their weapons. I managed to dodge or block most of the attacks, but luckily, Travis and Conner weren't too far off. They jumped in and helped me fend off the rest. Spotting an opening, I turned and ran into the woods with the Stolls at my heels.

I traveled off the beaten path and the three of us ducked behind some trees as a few red team campers stormed past, yelling about the flag. I hissed as leaves and branches pulled at my arm cut. Thankfully, it had stopped bleeding, but it didn't look like it would be healing anytime soon.

We all crouched down and the Stolls inched closer, forming a little huddle-triangle. Travis said, "The boarder's just north of here. It should be easy to get across the boarder now. No one knows we're hiding here. As soon as we cross the boarder, we win!"

Looking down, my eyes widened. "I have the flag," I realized in shock.

"_I have the flag!_" I repeated, sitting up on my knees and shoving it in Travis' face. "I can't believe it! I did it!"

Conner wiggled around, too, joining in on my awkward happy dance. "Congrats!" he cheered. "You were awesome! I can't believe you had the guts to jump out of the tree!"

"Jump _out _of the tree?" I snorted and Travis took the flag from my fist. "I had to jump _into_ the tree first!"

Conner laughed. "That, my friend," he said, holding out his hand, "deserves one epic fist-bump."

I returned the gesture with a flourish. "Let's get this flag home," I told him. I reached over to Travis, trying to take the flag.

He sat up, moving it out my reach. "Wait—look at this," Travis said, staring at the flag.

I brushed my hair out of my face, unsticking it from my sweaty forehead. "What now?"

Travis didn't move. He was still frozen. "Look at the flag," he stated again. "Look. At. _The flag_."

"Leila…" Conner started, glancing at the flag over his brother's shoulder. "Are you sure you grabbed the right flag?"

Barely breathing, I nodded. "Completely," I said. "I'm sure it was the right flag, Ares symbol and everything. Why? What's wrong with the flag?"

"Well," Conner muttered, taking the flag and turning it over in his hands. "It's not supposed to change until we cross the boarder but this definitely isn't the Ares flag."

"Unless…" Travis trailed off and they both stared at me.

Quickly, I grabbed the flag from them. "No! Oh, gods, _no! _What—I mean—I don't even—," I stammered in horror. I couldn't tear my eyes away from the flag. It was a living nightmare. "I don't _understand_…" I moaned.

"The flag changes," Travis explained impassively. "It transforms and redecorates itself to match the cabin you belong to."

"This is _not_ Hermes symbol," I managed, gasping.

The Stolls looked at each other, and then Conner reached out and took the flag. Gingerly, he folded the flag into a small ball, covering the symbol. From a far away, you could barely see any difference. It could still be the Ares' flag. But it definitely wasn't.

His brother took the flag from him and tucked it securely into my hand. "You've been claimed," he said and patted my hand.

"If this is some kind of trick," I warned, wringing the flag in my hand. "I'll gut you both—"

Travis cut me off before I even finished my threat. "We wouldn't joke about this, Leila."

"Hold on! You're telling me my dad is—"

I never got to finish. A deadly growled cut through the air. Still on our knees, the three of us froze then slowly turned to left where the bushes and trees met dense forest.

In between two branches, glowing red eyes stared back. Without moving anymore than completely necessary, Conner muttered, "Whatever you do, do_ not_ panic."

"Back away slowly and it might not follow," Travis managed to mutter out of the corner of his mouth. Carefully, the boys and I began backing out of the bush. The process of shuffling along on our knees was awkward and tedious, but the creature hasn't lunged for our necks yet so I could only hope our plan was working.

Eventually, we reached the path. The red team was no where in sight—thank the gods—and the creature didn't seem interested in following us. When we were standing upright again, the Stolls let out a huge breath. "That was close! I thought for sure that thing was going to follow—"

Another growl erupted from the bushes. Birds and squirrels went running and I was about to join them, but once I finally got a look at the thing in the bushes, I couldn't move. Fear had literally paralyzed me. The creature looked like a dog—but I was sure dogs do not grow to be that big. With it sharp claws and razor-like teeth, this thing could take down any Rottweiler without blinking.

Conner let out a yelp, hopping a bit in shock while raising his sword I defense. "Hellhound," Travis stated looking a bit more calm than I felt. He stood with his sword out high like he expected it to leap straight at us.

Following the Stolls example, I got my weapon ready just in case. I unslung the bow from it's place on my back and quickly notched a arrow. I aimed for right between the monster's eyes and waited.

Conner took a step back, testing if we could make a run for it. Even though the hellhound's eyes never left mine, it stalked forward three more paces as a response to Conner's actions. Hoping I didn't ruin everything, I quietly suggested, "Run?"

Travis' eyes flickered to mine then focused back on the monster. "Hellhounds are nearly impossible to outrun," he explained, not moving. "They attacked as soon as their target moves."

"It's our only chance," Conner said. "It'll attack soon anyway. Let's try."

"Conner's right. We can't fight it alone so we've got to outrun it to the boarder," I told them. "On three, we make a run for it."

Conner tensed. "One," he muttered.

"Two," Travis said with a nod.

I released my grip the arrow went flying, missing my target and skimming across the creature's face instead. "Three!" I shouted, whirling around and taking off with Travis and Conner at my side. Behind us, the hellhound let out a wail of anger, and we ran faster.

Later on, I'm pretty sure we actually passed some campers during our mad dash to the creek. They might have even tried to stop us, but honestly, capture the flag was the last thing on my mind. All I could really focus on was that death was literally snapping at our heels.

Other team members met us at the boarder, yelling and cheering. We were going to make it! I wasn't going to die at age twelve! I wanted to feel relieved, but I felt like I was going to have a heart attack instead. I'm not sure I could've slowed down if I wanted to! The three of us tore across the boarder—completely jumping over the creek—and crashed onto the ground on our own side.

Even as we stood up and cheers rose up around us, none of us dropped our weapons. We were so tense I thought we were going to snap. The flag was a crumpled mess in my fist, but I couldn't bring myself to relax it.

Luke broke through the crowd with a laugh. "Well, I want to say I saw it coming," he glanced at us ruefully, "but that would be a lie. I didn't see this coming at all." A dark look passed of his expression for a minute, but I brushed it off. This was _Luke,_ for goodness sake. I was getting more and more paranoid by the day.

"Where's Percy?" I demanded, still gripping the flag.

"Over there," Luke told me, pointing behind him. I muttered thanks and ignored the strange looks he was giving me. A few other people congratulated me, but I couldn't bring myself to even smile at them.

"Nice job," Annabeth said as I approached her and Percy. "I've got to admit, I thought Luke would get the flag."

"Uh, thanks," I said, tucking my flag-filled fist into my side. "Sorry I ruined your plan."

Annabeth narrowed her eyes. "The plan was to get the flag. My plan did _not_ fail."

"Congrats," Percy said, kicking some water off his sneakers.

"Percy," I muttered, completely ignoring the fact that he was standing in the creek. "I need to show you something."

"What's wrong?" he asked, lowering his voice to match mine.

Turning away from Annabeth, I jumped down into the water next to him. I wasn't even sure where to start but I tried—starting with the important thing first. "The flag changes. It—"

"How did you get that?" Annabeth cut in, pointing to Percy's arm. Immediately, my hand clamped down, covering my own arm from view. Annabeth was smart. She would notice if I had a completely identical cut in the exact same spot.

Percy looked down at the scratch she pointed to, and shrugged. "Sword cut," he said, my anger building slightly toward Clarisse. "What do you think?"

"It looks weeks old," I realized in horror. I was afraid to check my own arm, but I had my cut was also gone.

"She's right," Annabeth said. "It _was _a sword cut. Look at it."

"I—I don't get it," Percy stammered as the scar completely healed over and disappeared.

I grabbed Percy's wrist and tried to pull him away from Annabeth. "Percy—"

"Step out of the water," Annabeth told him.

Percy started. "What—"

By now, I realized I might have been a couple seconds too late. Considering the hard thinking look on Annabeth's face, she _knew_. "Percy, _please,_" I tried.

Annabeth narrowed her eyes at me then glanced back at Percy. "Just do it," she said.

He stepped out of the water and almost fell fully over. I cursed and reached out to catch him before he hit the ground. I dropped the flag in the process.

Annabeth bent down and picked the discarded flag. "Styx," she cursed, examining the flag. "This is _not _good. I didn't want... I assumed it would be Zeus..."

I put Percy's arm over my shoulder. "Annabeth, not _now_," I growled, hoping she would actually listen. "Something tried to attack us—"

Before I could finish, another bone-chilling howl ripped through the air, silencing the entire camp. Panic froze me in spot. For a second, everything stopped. My heart skipped a beat and my breath got caught in my throat.

After that, chaos broke lose. Chiron shouted. Aphrodite girls backed up and screamed. Ares kids grabbed their weapons. Travis and Conner started elbowing their way through over to me. I grabbed Percy's sword from him without dropping my brother back in the creek.

Another howl rang clear through the shouting and then it was there. Standing on the rocks above us was the hellhound. It bared its teeth and growled low in its throat—it clearly wasn't happy we had gotten away.

"Run!" Annabeth shouted at us, but it was just a little to late.

The hellhound lunged, leaping over the rest of the campers and coming straight for Percy and I. At the last second, Percy shoved me aside letting the beast totally tackle him.

"No!" I screamed as I landed in the creek. Instantly, I pulled myself upright, whirled around, and threw the sword straight at the monster.

I'm not sure what told me this was a good idea. It was probably a really _bad _idea. I mean, I could've hit Percy. For some reason it just made sense to send an extremely sharp object huddling through the air. (My mom would probably have a few choice words for that stunt.) But imagine my surprise when I ran over and found Percy's sword—the sword _I_ had thrown—impaled deep in the monster's back.

I didn't have time to focus on the sword though. Percy could be _dying_. I kneeled down and pushed the hellhound body off of Percy. "Oh, gods," I muttered, looking at the blood.

"_Di immortales!"_ Annabeth said. "That's a hellhound from the Fields of Punishment. They don't... they're not supposed to..."

"Someone summoned it," Chiron announced gravely. "Someone inside the camp."

"It's all Percy's fault!" Clarisse shouted. "Percy summoned it!"

"_Shut up_!" I roared, smacking my hand onto the ground. The rocks under my hand cracked and ground shook just like it did when I jumped from the tree but this time—it shook _hard_. A few campers wobbled around like they were having trouble keeping their balance, but Clarisse completely toppled over. She hit the ground with a loud THUD and the shaking died away.

Everyone but Annabeth literally took one step a back.

"You're wounded," Annabeth told my brother. "Quick, Percy, get in the water,"

"I'm okay," he protested, trying to sit up.

"No, you're not," I growled, throwing one of his arms over my shoulder again. "Annabeth, help me."

She threw aside the flag and grabbed his other arm, helping me stand Percy up in the creek. The cuts instantly started healing and then I was the one sagging against Percy—but in relief.

He was an idiot. Keeping him out of trouble was like… well, like trying to control water. If it wasn't properly controlled or contained, it spread out and covered whatever it could, affecting everything within reach. It was natural.

"Look, I—I don't know why," Percy start, trying to explain. "I'm sorry…"

"Percy, stop," I told him quietly. The campers were staring at us—but not in the way I expected. We were obviously missing something.

"Guys," Annabeth said, pointing. "Um…" Percy and I glanced up just in time to see it. It was faint, but there was no use denying it. We had been publicly claimed.

"Your father," Annabeth continued, probably not even realizing that she was talking aloud. "This is _really_ not good."

Chiron picked up the flag from where Annabeth had dropped it. He held up for everyone to see. "It is determined," he said. His voice echoed around the forest and campers started kneeling in respect.

"Our father?" Percy choked out.

"Poseidon. Earth-shaker, Strom-bringer, Father of Horses," Chiron announced. "Hail, Perseus and Leila Jackson, Twins of the Sea God."

I looked down at the green silk flag with the silver gleaming trident on it. "We're so screwed," I mumbled, closing my eyes in horror.

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><p>Our last night in the Hermes cabin was very different from others. People still joked around and campers still laughed or complained about the bed situation but everyone avoided us. It was like Percy and I had suddenly developed this dangerous disease that was highly contagious through contact of any kind—or worse, it was like Percy and I had never part of the Hermes cabin at all.<p>

Luke muttered a quick congratulations about being claimed and then help us pack up our stuff the next morning but I got the feeling he was a bit mad at us. Whether for being claimed so quickly or because I stole his shiny moment in capture the flag, I couldn't be sure.

I want to say things got better after we were moved to cabin three, but I'd be lying.

Percy and I had our own table at meals and there was no counselor to tell us when to wake up or go to bed. The Poseidon cabin had tons of space. There were so many extra bunks Percy and I each could've changed beds for a straight week and we wouldn't have used all of them. There was a closet with special shelves for clothes, weapons, and whatever else demigods might want to have. We our own clean marble bathroom and the entire cabin was air-conditioned with special air that smelled like a fresh sea breeze.

By far, the Poseidon cabin was the nicest place I had ever lived.

But it was also the most empty. The two of us were absolutely miserable.

Hanging out with Percy was fine, but we usually had some kind of buffer. I mean, he was my best friend… but he was still my twin brother. We argued all the time so before either of us had even sat down in our new cabin, we were ready to kill each other.

No, Percy, I do not appreciate you leaving your shoes in the middle of the cabin. There's room in the closet for that.

Yes, Percy, I do except you to put that Minotaur horn somewhere other than that unused bed over there. We have plenty of shelf space for that.

Yes, Percy, I will be leaving my toothbrush by the sink. And _NO_, you can't use it.

It only took me a total of twelve seconds to realize that Percy and I had never lived together. We had spent summers sharing a room but when you live with Gabe, everything is always messy. In the summer, I got lazy. Why would I bother picking up Percy's or my stuff when it could be replaced with so much worse? I guess I'd never thought that Percy was naturally this messy. I probably should've though because he was a pretty typical boy.

Before you judge, just remember: you have never lived with Percy Jackson. Also, don't think I was being a crazy-neat-freak-Nazi either because I wasn't. I just didn't like having socks and candy wrappers everywhere, thank you very much.

And things only got worse from there.

Nobody really talked to us—and when they did, they never stood too close or looked us in the eye. They were scared. Although, after hearing what Percy did to the Ares campers plus the hellhound and what happens to the ground when I jumped from the tree (Annabeth called it a "mini-earthquake"), I didn't really blame them. None of those experiences had been fun for Percy and I either. I wanted to forget as much as they did, or maybe even more.

I wanted to forget about it and move back into the Hermes cabin. I didn't get the chance to talk to Travis and Conner, but I got the feeling they were avoiding me. After all, it was pretty obvious the hellhound had almost killed all of us just because it wanted me dead. And it was just my luck that the only people who would still acknowledge that Percy and I stilled existed were Luke, Chiron, and Annabeth (sort of).

Annabeth was still teaching us Ancient Greek every morning, but it was extremely formal. She never relaxed and would glare at us a lot. I also found it hard to concentrate on the Greek when she purposely set her knife out on the table every morning and started playing with it when I asked her a question. I got the feeling she didn't like us very much anymore.

Luke continued to give Percy and I sword lessons. They were strictly one-on-one now and Luke didn't hold back. "You're going to need all the training you can get," he told us. "Now let's try that viper-beheading strike again. Fifty more repetitions." Luke quickly became the toughest teacher I've ever had—and I've literally been taught by a creature from hell. He also became my least favorite person at camp. If he near, I was leaving with a new sword-sized bruise. It was a vicious type of torture, too, since Percy and I got double the amount of bruises. Every time we missed and Luke managed to get us, we both flinched. To top it off, my skill with a sword wasn't improving at all. I left each lesson feeling horrible and caught Percy giving me exasperated looks. I knew I was causing most of the bruises.

Just like the mind-connection, we didn't tell anyone about the shared bruises or scratches. No need to label ourselves as even greater freaks. The biggest problem was we couldn't figure out any kind of pattern. We shared the pain when Clarisse shocked Percy and when he got scratched, but not when the hellhound attacked. We also both got the bruises that Luke gives each of us. Our best guess was that demigods had to inflict the wound and then we would share it.

Chiron taught us archery. That was easier for me and also a lot less painful. It was almost impossible for us to get hurt, but Percy somehow managed to figure out a way. He was as hopeless with a bow as I was with a sword.

We were quite a pair. And everyone at Camp Half-Blood was watching our misery.

* * *

><p>It was time for a break. Percy had gone to look for Grover and I decided—for the sake of our sanity—it was time for the Jacksons to have some time apart.<p>

I went back to my empty cabin and tossed my practice blade onto one of the unused beds. "Oh, gods," I muttered, staring at my blade. "I'm becoming as lazy as Percy." I shivered and quickly put the blade on one of the sword shelves. Besides our practice swords, there wasn't anything else in the cabin.

The whole cabin was almost _too_ big. It felt like all the empty air was slowly suffocating me. The entire place was way too depressing. There were no pictures or personal decorations. The only signs of life were some our unmade beds and the Minotaur horn.

Glancing around, I grudging felt grateful towards the dirty pair of socks Percy had forgotten to pick up this morning. He might be annoyingly messy by accident, but his small messes also made the cabin feel a little bit more like home. I shrugged and took off my shoe. Without another thought, I tossed them into the middle of the cabin. I grinned. Still trying to make this place feel more like home, I went into the closet to hunt out our extra set of clothes.

There were a lot of drawers built into the closet walls so it was only natural that I couldn't remember which drawers we had decided to use—and I still had a theory that Percy wasn't using drawers at all. Shrugging, I realized it wouldn't take long and looking for our clothes might be worth it. I started my search on the left and worked around the room from the there.

The first three drawers were empty, but the fourth drawer turned out to be full—but not of our stuff.

This drawer was a lot bigger than the others and it was almost completely filled with junk. Wedged together was a collection of notes, old pictures, broken glass pieces—I even caught sight of an old monster claw.

My heart beat faster as I began looking through everything. Carefully I cleared away the broken glass and layer thick dust. I picked up the pictures first. They were so old most of the pictures had melted together creating a strange collage of black-and-white soup but one or two of them still had a relatively clear image.

One of them was a picture of the Poseidon cabin's porch—except there were teenagers on it. Almost all of them looked about seventeen years old, and every single one had jet-black hair exactly like mine. _These people were my siblings_, I thought. I had other siblings! Yes, they had all probably died years ago—but this was beyond cool! The second picture was taken at the beach. There was a bonfire roaring and I was able to recognize some of the people around the fire from the first photo of the cabin. I flipped over the pictures, but there wasn't anything written on the back. No names, no dates.

The screen door slammed. "Leila?" Percy called. "You here?"

"Yeah," I said, standing up from my spot on the floor. "I'm here—but Percy, you've got to see this!"

Percy came to the closet door. His eyebrows furrowed. "What are you doing in here?"

"Never mind that. Look at this!" I told him, pointing.

He came in and stood next to me, glancing at the drawer. "It's a drawer of trash."

"That's what I thought until I found these." I gave him the pictures. Slowly, I watched Percy put the pieces together—first he was confused, then his mouth fell open. After a few seconds, he finally grinned.

"These are so cool!" he said still grinning like a maniac. "What else is in here?" He bent down and we both started rifling through the rest of the drawer.

"We all look alike," I commented, examining the group of dark-haired teens. "At least, we all have the dark hair—I can't really tell anyone's eye color. The picture was taken too far away. The two of us have different eye color so maybe they all had different—"

"Check it out!" Percy interrupted. I glanced over to see that my brother had pulled off his sneakers and gotten more comfortable on the floor. He was now sitting Indian style holding up a piece of dirty metal. "Someone must have really liked their weapon," he continued.

"What is it?"

"It's a bracelet, see?" Percy said putting the two chain ends together. "It's got little charm on it. It looks like a knife."

"Let me see." I sat down next to him and he dropped the bracelet in my hand. I turned it over a few times in my hand and realized Percy was right. It was a thin metal chain that had a little knife hanging from it. The knife was no bigger than my pinky nail, but looked really detailed. It was just an old, dirty charm bracelet. "Weird," I said.

Percy shrugged. "For a demigod who was probably born with a sword in her hand, I'd bet it was normal."

I raised an eyebrow. "Who says it was a girl's?"

"It's a bracelet, Leila. It's a girl's," he insisted.

"Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't," I decided.

He smirked. "Try it on then."

"I hate jewelry! You try it on," I told him. "Besides, I'm not trying on some stranger's freaky bracelet!"

His smirk widened. "I already tried. The chain wouldn't fit around my wrist."

"Don't look so smug—and Percy, it's kind of ugly anyway," I admitted.

Percy rolled his eyes. "Just try it." _Do it_.

_I'm just going to take it right off, _I told him.

He grinned and grabbed the bracelet. "I'll help you put it on." I held up my arm and Percy carefully wrapped the bracelet around my wrist.

"It's cold," I complained, wriggling my arm away from him.

"Don't be such a priss," he replied, steadying my arm and clicking the bracelet in place. "Ha! Done!"

I shook my arm to get the bracelet in place. The bracelet jingled, making a typical girly sound that made me cringe. "I'm taking this off," I announced, searching the bracelet for the clasp. "This is a loud, ugly piece of jewelry—and in my experience girls don't like other girls stealing their jewelry. Yes!" I continued when Percy opened his mouth. "I admit that this was a girl's bracelet. It far too ugly to be anything else." I spun the bracelet around on my wrist. Then I spun it a second time. Then a third time—_where was the stupid clasp?_

"Percy, how did you get this on?" I asked still searching the chain.

He had turned toward the drawer again. "Did you break it?" he said, barely looking up from the old Latin book he had found.

"No!" I snapped, shaking my wrist pulling the bracelet. "Percy—I can't figure out how to take this off!"

He tossed the book aside. "I know you don't where jewelry, Leila," he teased, "but I would've thought even you would know how take off a bracelet."

"Get it off," I told him.

Percy held up his hands in surrender. "Okay, okay. Calm down. It's not going to kill you or something."

After a few seconds of messing around with the bracelet chain, I knew it was hopeless. Percy shrugged. "The clasp disappeared. I guess you're stuck with it—"

"What do you want me to do?" I said, ripping my hand away from him. "I'm not leaving this on my wrist forever, Percy!"

"If you had let me finish, you would that I was about to say 'until we figure out a way to take it off'!" Percy snapped while I pulled on the bracelet. "You're rubbing your wrist raw," he continued.

"I don't care. I want this thing off!" I pulled on the chain harder.

"Just leave it alone," Percy said, closing the drawer. "It's almost time for dinner anyway. Maybe we can talk to Annabeth or Chiron about—"

_THUNK._

My mouth fell open. Percy immediately froze and then slowly turned.

Exactly three inches from his head, a long, curved blade was stuck into the wall, still quivering slightly from the force. Percy jerked away from the blade so fast he fell over and landed face-first on the floor. I wanted to help him up, but I was too busy staring at my now charm-less bracelet.

"Is that…?"

Percy didn't even finish the question. Slowly, the shock wore off and I walked over to the knife. It was almost hilt deep in the closet wall. Looking closely, I nodded once toward Percy. "It is," I stated.

"How did it come off?" Percy said, getting up from the floor.

I shook my head. "I have no idea—but honestly, I'm more concerned about how we get a now full-sized knife back on this little bracelet."

My brother came over and pulled on the dagger. "It's stuck," he said, attempting to wriggle it up and down.

"Here," I said. "Let me try." I nudged Percy out of the way and wrapped my hands around the hilt. Bracing my foot against the wall, I gave one hard tug and the knife freed itself from the wall. It slid out like it had never been stuck at all.

Percy stared at me, gaping like a fish. I held up the knife next to the chain. Immediately, it shrunk back down the a little silver charm and clicked into place on my bracelet.

I shook my wrist again but the charm stayed in place. Carefully, I lightly twisted the charm and it clicked again, coming off the bracelet chain and growing into a normal curved, nine-inch blade.

_I think this just became my favorite piece of jewelry._ I slowly smiled.

* * *

><p><strong>(AN: Hahaha! Sorry about the cliffhanger! I'll try not to give anymore of those. I know cliffhangers can be extremely frustrating [hello, Mark of Athena]. Anyways, this chapter was a shorter than normal, but hopefully I'll update again soon.)  
><strong>

**And a HUGE thanks to...  
><strong>_Whispers The Ninetales, Tohappyformyowngood, Sweetpanda12, Bookworm77071, Ch33tahp4w, Puzzlingnerd57, Paigemeable, HolleyS, Brielle Chase, Omega2199, ElmoDaHorse, YJV, NCISaddictionMcGreek, Guest, Minininnies, hmm Museums, Percyfanforlife, iluvJesus, alianna, and Meriland25  
><em>**..for reviewing! You guys make my days awesome!****  
><strong>

* * *

><p><strong>My answer to last chapter's question:<br>**Hades should definitely have a cabin! Honestly, I think it would've shoved a lot of problems.

**This chapter's question:  
><strong>_How often do you play capture the flag?_

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><p><strong>Facebook Page: <strong>**_Completely Shore_**


	12. Signing Off

April 23, 2015

Currently, life has taken me other places outside . This site and the stories I have posted here will always hold a very special place in my heart, as do the readers that have supported me through the years. I don't know what would have happened if I had I never gotten that first review telling me to continue writing. I never expected to go as far as I did. Thank you to every single one of my readers, and I'm sorry that I may never finish writing about Leila Jackson and her adventures. I will never stop writing about her, but I may never post again.

I'm sorry it's been over a year since I've posted, but don't think I've stopped writing. Someday, I'll share my original stories and you'll meet new characters with new adventures. I'll already looking forward to what you say about them. I hope you'll love them as much as you appreciate Leila. You all took such good care of her and I can't thank you enough for your support. Never hesitate to message me with questions. I would love to support all fanfiction writers and readers.

I love you all so much. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Kimby


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